According to what I'm reading you need to take most of the reporting, an particularly those maps, with a grain of salt. Quite a few of the number listed as 'swine flu deaths' have not been confirmed as such and a considerable number are being listed simply because someone died of an unknown disease, respiratory disease or unclassified flu.

Point being that people die. That death from an unknown disease is pretty common. That tuberculosis, pneumonia and other respiratory diseases are common. That even when the focus is further narrowed to just flu there is always some background of one of the more common flu types going around. It comes down to some people simply finding out how many people have died in an area and then assuming all of them expired because of swine flu without spending much time to specify how certain the reports are.

Effects Measure has a good riff on this:
http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/04/swine_flu_what_did_you_expect.php

Your best defense is still to avoid crowds, avoid touching your face, frequent hand washing, and, if you think it will help to keep your hands away and/or you go out into the public, wearing a N-95 or better mask.

And, please, if your feeling sick, don't try to tough it out and go to work or continue as if nothing is wrong. Stay home.

If you do buy masks consider buying masks with an exhalation valve. They are much more comfortable for long term and hot weather use. The most durable and comfortable I have found are the Mouldex brand with the exhaust valve.

On another discussion group I was on someone suggested walking in to work, sneeze, and say "oink".

Gotta try that one tomorrow...

It's fun to have a laugh at the expense of the easily-frightened....

I found myself today, applying for 4 weeks holiday taking the whole of June off work.

These were false alarms.

One of the sad realities of a long lived forum is the changing roster of active posters. A doctor in Singapore explained away many fears of modern pandemic outbreaks some time back. I will have to find his illuminating posts.

These events always produce a spike in forum activity and new members.While we moderators ask everyone to keep the threads manageable, do NOT fear posting on the subject.

As an aside, testing found positive evidence for AVIAN influenza
today in L.A. county. The story was all but forgotten in the media's ambulance chasing.

My mother just soaked my apartment in Lysol disinfectant after watching the news. I had to sit outside with my cat for 30 minutes watching Bats hunting insects. I think we both caught colds.

LOL. Lucky there's no bat flu going around.

The poster was trusbx, a MD in Singapore during the bird flu scare. Just do a search for influenza and read his several informative posts.

John Barry who wrote the accessible account of the 1918 flu pandemic has a worthwhile op-ed in the NY Times this morning, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/opinion/28barry.html?_r=1.

It sums up the relative importance of the current swine flu outbreak and what we *might* expect next, in terms of mutations etc, based on historical precedents. I say might because nothing is certain here, every outbreak follows its own course. But the column is brief and worth a look. Nothing to panic over. We'll get through this. Etc.

I am really glad nobody is blowing this all out of proportion.

California Declares State of Emergency Over Swine Flu

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100...ency-swine-flu/

New York City Health Commissioner: 'Many Hundreds' of School Students Sick With Suspected Swine Flu

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518262,00.html

WHO stage 5 is fast approaching I fear, yet some folks are still thinking about the bottom line

U.S. Warns China, Other Countries Not to Ban Pork

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/28/warns-china-countries-ban-pork/