This outbreak of swine flu is worth taking very seriously. Like the 1918 influenza outbreak, the early reports of local outbreaks have been split between mild disease or severe symptoms that kill unusual numbers of people in their prime. Just because the New York cases have been mild is no prediction that this won’t get much uglier in short order. Influenza virus have unusual genetics, allowing milder phenotypes to carry the genes for a severe form (and vice-versa), with rapid shifts between the two disease forms in a rapidly spreading epidemic.

Erica’s feature a couple of years ago on what an Avian influenza outbreak would be like is a good place to start. So is my post, courtesy of my public health nurse mom. The advice is about the same….

Unlike the typical annual influenza outbreak, deadly mostly for those very young or old, H5N1 kills people with the healthiest immune systems—people in their twenties. This virus, like the 1918 influenza, induces a panic response from our immune systems; for people in their twenties, it is your own immune system that does you in.

We have much better drugs to control the immune system, things like cortico-steroids….

The best plan is not getting infected. Here are some hints on how to that:

Avoid prolonged or close exposure to people who are infected.

Wash your hands. Start with the habit of washing every time you enter your home, and before every meal. For when soap and water isn’t available, carry some instant hand sanitizer—like Purell and with at least 60% alcohol—and use a dime-sized drop that will keep your hands wet for at least 10 seconds.

Use a surgical mask—available at drug or grocery stores—if you go out during the outbreak. It should be good enough to protect you from the virus-carrying droplets, provided you stay 3-6 feet away from someone coughing. And cover your own coughs.

Stock up on food and water.

The Federal Government’s pandemic flu website is pretty slammed right now. King County Public Health’s pandemic flu website is up and running, and one of the best put together sites.

Jonathan Golob is an actual doctor.

84 replies on “What To Do with Swine Flu”

  1. Vegans are so much like wacky anti-abortionists. (And why do they always that have that pallid, waxy completion?) You don’t have the moral high ground here. Does it upset you that lions kill and eat gazelles? We eat meat because we are part of the food chain. It’s not morally wrong. (And don’t forget all the disease that has been spread by peanuts, pistachios, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, etc.) So really, you can get off that high horse anytime now.

    As for the flu, eh, something got to kill you. If it’s not the swine flu, which will probably not amount to much, it will be something else. Stop worrying about dying, (you’re going to die eventually anyway, and no amount of worry ever stopped it.) and have a steak once in a while.

  2. I hope all those people who last week characterised hand washing as social conditioning and unnecessary have changed their minds. It is ironic that the healthiest immune systems are switched into overdrive by this virus.

  3. From Wikipedia 1918 flu pandemic:

    An effort to recreate the 1918 flu strain (a subtype of avian strain H1N1) was a collaboration among the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York; the effort resulted in the announcement (on October 5, 2005) that the group had successfully determined the virus’s genetic sequence, using historic tissue samples recovered from a female flu victim buried in the Alaskan permafrost and samples preserved from American soldiers.[38]

    On January 18, 2007, Kobasa et al. reported that monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) infected with the recreated strain exhibited classic symptoms of the 1918 pandemic and died from a cytokine storm[39] – an overreaction of the immune system. This may explain why the 1918 flu had its surprising effect on younger, healthier people, as a person with a stronger immune system would potentially have a stronger overreaction.[40]

    On September 16, 2008, the body of Yorkshire landowner Sir Mark Sykes was exhumed to study the RNA of the Spanish flu virus in efforts to understand the genetic structure of modern H5N1 bird flu. Sykes had been buried in 1919 in a lead coffin which scientists hope will have helped preserve the virus.[41]

    In December, 2008 research by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of University of Wisconsin linked the presence of three specific genes (termed PA, PB1, and PB2) and a nucleoprotein derived from 1918 flu samples to the ability of the flu virus to invade the lungs and cause pneumonia. The combination triggered similar symptoms in animal testing.
    End quote.

    So, it seems to me that only 4 months ago, scientists were experimenting with the original 1918 virus. Could it be that the actual 1918 flu has gotten released this time around?

  4. Personally I’m looking forward to it; I hope it’s huge and kills off say… a billion, with most of the deaths in the most developed (wasteful) countries? With any luck all my close friends and family will make it – as well as myself of course – but I’m willing to gamble on that with all your lives. I’m not a religious nut, but I’m most certainly a nut and would love to see the tide of chaos that ensues as millions of unprepared people panic and begin tearing one another apart in the hopes of finding water or buying a mask. It’s not taxes; it’s not abortion; it’s not any controllable issue. Who will they complain to? Their elected officials? God? It won’t matter – no disease will listen as we all start to die.

    Yep about a billion, maybe two, solves most of our population/pollution/consumption problems and with none of the moral guilt or environmental damage of nuclear war. I’m all for it.

  5. 56
    Wiping 30-40 million off the Social Security rolls would do wonders for the nations botton line. If the swine flu singles out healthy young people it will worsen our already disasterous demographic social service pyramid scam.

  7. “Could it be that the actual 1918 flu has gotten released this time around? “

    Or could it be that only a dumbshit would use Wikipedia as a source for anything, especially anything important?

    If you want a list of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands, Wikipedia is fine. If you want to research something that actually matters, stay away from it.

  8. Glad to see everybody’s taking this seriously. I should probably stop by the store on the way home and get some canned beans and a new jug of bleach, just in case.

  11. @59: yeah, I’m planning on restocking my supplies. I have a bunch of rice and a thing of water, but I should get another thing of water and more canned protein things. For whatever reason I already have a pack of N95 masks.

  14. Thanks for the info Golob! I am very, very thankful for all the professionals that are working tirelessly to help slow or stop this infection. They are truly the unsung heros in America…

  17. @17: It’s a not uncommon phenomenon called a Zoonotic Disease. When it jumps from species to species, the proteins that identify it to our immune system get transformed, making us less able to fight it.

    @44: The only way to avoid this would be to have no contact at all with animals. Animal husbandry may increase the chance of these occurrences, but it has next to nothing to do with consuming meat.

  20. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON AN N95 MASK, let alone a box of them. They are selling like hotcakes on Amazon, per some reports here. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their guidelines for flu transmission prevention for healthcare workers recommends “droplet precautions,” only for flu transmission prevention….i.e. use a regular surgical (much cheaper) mask if you anticipate being coughed on by a flu patient. An N95 is for tuberculosis and a few other airborn pathogens and is overkill for the flu.

  21. it is factory farming of animals that is causing outbreaks in food! what do you think happens to all the shit that pigs, chickens and cows shit? Farmers try to compost it, there is too much of it, so they throw it on crops early, hence, crazy diseases you can get from eating plants.
    swine flu started because of close human contact with pigs. i’m very doubtful that these pigs were kept as companion animals, and were being farmed instead.
    so yeah, when i die from swine flu, i hope to see all of you meat eating bastards in hell.

  22. addendum: An N95 is overkill for flu prevention not because the flu is necessarily less deadly than airborn illnesses, but because it travels on droplets that are big enough to be stopped by an ordinary surgical mask.

  25. #51:

    Do you actually deny the simple fact that factory farming was the cause of the foodborne illnesses spread by spinach, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers, etc.? Animals raised for food produce 130 times as much excrement as the entire U.S. population, which is leading to more and more instances of fecal contamination. While the number of animals raised and killed for food is increasing, the number of farms is actually decreasing. This means more and more animals are being kept on less property, and when you overcrowd animals, diseases and infections are far more likely to develop and spread. Whether or not you agree with me that animals should not be property and should not be raised for food or any other reason, you simply cannot ignore the fact that raising animals for food in a world with an ever-increasing population is extremely irresponsible and dangerous.

  26. Flu Panic: A Stranger tradition for how many years now?

    ECB is probably busy adding to her stockpiles of food and wine in her basement bunker…

  28. @75: And for that matter vegetables — Spinach isn’t being grown next to pigs. These factory farms are usually specialized. I agree they’re bad, but your post is misleading.

  29. @65: I don’t SEE any of them, but the CDC is a pretty great organization, you should look it up sometime.

    But I am sooo proud you learned how to use your words! Good Boy!

  31. @80: I was just saying @75 was misleading.

    As far as Part 5 — Bad farming practices definitely help create super bugs — having said that, eating pork isn’t going to get you sick.

  32. Dudes, seriously.

    Look, THE MOST EFFECTIVE THING YOU CAN DO IS wash your hands with hot water and soap.

    Second best (do this too), use a kleenex or sleeve if you sneeze.

    After that you’re pretty much wasting your time, unless you are ACTIVELY SICK – in which case STAY HOME.

    … sigh …

  33. Far as I can see, the aspirin bottle still has the best advice for avoiding all kinds of diseases – take two and keep away from children.

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