Good practical article on H1N1

I have read many, many articles on H1N1, both academic and more mainstream, since last April. I just read one article on CNN (originally from Health.com) that I find refreshingly practical, relatively comprehensive, and which treats us like adults, so I thought I would point it out to folks.

It neither simply parrots the CDC line nor does it echo the crazy stuff you read on the Internet over and over again. It puts the current and potential risk into perspective, and gives practical info and options. Definitely one of the best articles I have read that I would point a not-particularly-scientific type to. Of course, as we progress into the autumn and winter, some of this advice may not be appropriate depending on how circumstances unfold, but for the moment, it's good advice.

The article can be found here .

I also recommend
http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx
and
http://www.badscience.net/2009/09/how-to-read-articles-about-health-by-dr-alicia-white/#more-830

That second article about how to read a health article is a good reference. Thanks for that. I wish they would teach this stuff in high school to everyone.

Our family just got through a bout with H1N1. Our son brought it home from school. then my wife and then me. It had the hardest effect on our 15yr old. We all took Tamiflu. It was like any other flu. Also we use germ x like crazy,wash hands often, I would perform saline flush in sinus cavity and listerine gargles,but still got it!

I just heard The US president declared H1N1 to be a National Emergency.
What does that mean?

Dunno, but I'd take a wild guess that the release of federal funds is involved.

EDIT: whoops, my bad, I spoke to soon. Seems it has to do with allowing alternate sites for care, outside of the existing rules. In the event things get ugly, this may be needed. Hope it doesn't get there.

Yep.

And differing levels of aid from government agencies ( real people, not just funds )

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/24/AR2009102401061.html

Among other things,


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/24/health/main5417431.shtml
has additional things hospitals could do.

I can't even figure out what's going on with H1N1 any more. Maybe excessive paranoia.

If you look at the CDC data, this bug is supposed to be in epidemic proportions around the USA.

Well guess what ... I live in So. California and I don't know even ONE person who's had it. Not even one. The company where I work has nearly 4,000 people - I have not heard of anyone getting it. My church probably has 800-1,000 people - but I have not heard of anyone getting it. Not even one person with a diagnosis of H1N1.

Beats me what's going on.
Media paranoia maybe.

Pete

Wait for it.

My Mom came down with assumed H1N1. It came on like a train about 1 week ago, and is still not over. In a household with a grandaughter and daughter, still waiting for it it spread, but daughter is an RN and has been good about taking precautions. It really wiped out Mom, and requires alot of basic care - my sister has been calling in sick to care for her. Various of us kids looking in, providing some primary care. No matter what, its serious when someone you know has caught it.

So the pandemic is real, just not in your neck of the woods yet.

What were your Mom's symptoms exactly?
How - if at all - were they different from standard cold or 'flu?

Pete

H1N1 peer pressure in NYC:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-bea...y-68801572.html

Swine Flu Fears Lead to Girl-on-Girl Brawl on D Train

By BRIAN RIES

Updated 10:41 AM EST, Tue, Nov 3, 2009

After a rough spring that saw as many as 20 to 40 percent of New Yorkers exposed to H1N1, subway riders have resorted to defending themselves with their fists.

Violence struck on a southbound D train Monday morning after two women got into an argument over one's refusal to cover her mouth while coughing. It ended with her spitting on the other, a punch, and the second woman dragging the first to the floor of the car by her hair.

1. I said assumed H1N1. My mom hasn't entered the hospital for treatment, or been diagnosed with H1N1. We say assumed because a. Mom has her standard flu shot several weeks ago b. she has been volunteering as a library reading tutor to a child in elementary school who was diagnosed with actual A/H1N1 just prior to Mom going down.

2. there are no separate symptoms for A/H1N1 - flu is flu. Mom's symptoms include coughing, sore throat, runny nose, fever, weakness. She's a 79 year old woman, and at the moment needs to be helped out of the bed to go to the bathroom. For 3 days she couldn't manage that. No appetite, but she is keeping up on fluids and weak digestables.

In the end I don't give a hoot what brand of flu she has - alot of folks have it right now, and it is generally severe enough to take precautions from getting it yourself, but also requires some time from all of us to care for people who are down with the flu. As pandemics are supposed to go, this one is working out pretty much as expected.

It's impossible to really say, without testing, whether someone had H1N1 versus some other flu strain (and there are others out there, but not common right now, like an H3N2 strain) versus something entirely different which also gives you flu-like symptoms.

One difference between H1N1 and your typical seasonal flu is more nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea with many H1N1 cases. But then again, there are other bugs out there that can give you these symptoms. Additionally, a certain percentage of H1N1 cases don't develop a fever, which is unusual. So, it's very hard to diagnose H1N1 based solely on symptoms.

And unless you had a laboratory confirmed case of H1N1, no one should assume that they're already immune to H1N1 because they presumably just got over a case of it. In reality, you may not have even been infected with influenza at all.

There was that CBS news report recently where they tallied lab results from state labs. A rather eye opening report, actually. We've been hearing that the CDC's own lab has consistently found almost only H1N1 in the samples it tests. But from April through June, these state labs showed remarkably few H1N1 cases in their samples. Very odd. Without knowing more about the underlying data, that's very conflicting results. There's probably a good explanation, but reports like that really must make life difficult for the health authorities who are trying to keep up some momentum with the vaccine campaign, public awareness about hand washing, etc.

Along the same lines, there was a new study just out yesterday pointing out that old folks are actually at rather high risk of dying BUT out of those actually hospitalized. Few older folks are being hospitalized for H1N1, but the general message seems to be that suddenly old folks are at high risk. Which may make the older generation suddenly flock to flu clinics and demand their H1N1 shots all of a sudden, putting even more strain on flu vaccine supplies. Yeah, must be a headache for public health authorities.

Whatever it is, we're treating the symptoms, and its been manageable. And Mom is doing pretty well right now, she is sitting up and having actual breakfast after keeping down her dinner last night, and called my wife this morning for her xxth birthday.

Here's an interesting chart on some of the details on swine flu:
http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/piggy-trouble/?display=wide

The key information is in the lower right corner just above the text: "Fear of swine flu vs. knowledge."

According to articles linked to by slashdotters, the swine flu epidemic may have peaked:
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/11/21/1416248/WHO-Says-Swine-Flu-May-Have-Peaked-In-the-US
according to the World Health Organization, and Anne Schuchat, MD, head of the CDC says we're in better shape now than a couple of weeks ago.

We're not out of the woods yet, of course - one data point doesn't make a trend - but fears of widespread death seem now to be fading (among professionals).

Lono: I hope your mother is feeling better.

My family actually went through an incident of 'flu about 2-3 weeks ago here in CA. This was separate from a version of the cold virus that is also going around. Although it's speculative - I think that we probably had the swine 'flu. We were pretty lucky and no-one got the symptoms really seriously. In fact, to us it just seemed like another version of the 'flu. However, I fully understand that some folks are just more susceptible to any particular 'flu strain.

I had one version of the "normal" 'flu a few years ago while I was on business travel. The end result was that I found myself sitting on my bed at midnight in a strange hotel room - struggling very hard just to breathe. It's really not funny when you get into respiratory distress from one these 'flu bugs, and quite annoying when the front desk at the hotel won't even provide over-the-counter meds.

Nowadays I always carry some basic cold meds in my travel kit.

Pete

I'm a little surprised that your doctor prescribed Tamiflu because recent strains of H1N1 have been shown to be resistant. Relenza was shown to be more effective at preventing or treating H1N1 (and is also less expensive, though less convenient as it is an inhaled powder), and has been authorized by the CDC for use as a prophylaxis and treatment for H1N1. This may explain why your entire family got sick in spite of taking antivirals.

In a family situation it is virtually impossible to avoid cross contamination unless you employ hospital type isolation, protection, hygiene and disinfecting techniques. Each cough and sneeze distributes droplets of mucous over a surprisingly far and wide area, and the virus can live for up to 8 hours on dry surface -- longer on a moist one.

I know a lot of natural/alternative health sites claim that because the virus takes 2-3 days to "incubate" you can stay healthy by using saline washes, gargling, using lemon oil, oregano oil, peppermint oil, even garlic. Incubate isn't an accurate term. Once the virus has entered your mouth, lungs or sinuses you are fairly certainly infected. It doesn't take 2-3 days for the virus to activate, this is time it takes the virus already in your system to reproduce sufficiently to cause you to feel sick.

However, it might be possible that some natural/alternative health protocols will promote general good health and improved immune systems, thereby lessening the effects of an infection. Perhaps this is why you fared better than your 15yo.

And at least the garlic will keep you safe from vampires.