It’s the Flu, Stupid
With everyone up in arms about the swine flu, I thought it was a good time to put things in perspective and remind people to use common sense.
Swine flu can kill you!
I really hate to be all anti-hysteric and burst your bubble, but all flu – true influenza and not the inaccurately named “stomach flu” – has the potential to kill you. In the U.S. alone, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from influenza each year, and more than 40,000 die. That’s just in the United States. Worldwide, the population is culled by up to half a million annually, just from flu. The same flu that you don’t really give any thought to each year.
This is why there’s a flu vaccine. This wasn’t developed just because epidemiologists want to prevent you from feeling like crap. It’s because the flu can kill you. Not just swine flu, but regular old flu.
But I heard it on the news!
Yes, this has lots of publicity, just like SARS and bird flu before it. That does not, in and of itself, make it more dangerous.
Don’t leave the house!
Have you ever worked in an office where the flu took out coworkers one by one? This one operates in the same way. Wash your hands, use antibacterial hand gels and encourage the sick people to stay home, the same way you would if any other cold or flu was traveling through the office.
It’s the same as the 1918 flu!
Yes, it is an H1N1 strain, just like the 1918 flu. But H1N1 strains are not uncommon, and that doesn’t mean that some hideously deadly form of flu has resurfaced after 90 years. In fact, an H1N1 variant is present in this year’s flu shot.
Rush to the doctor at the first signs of illness!
If you’re sick today, odds are good that it’s something other than swine flu that’s sickening you. Avoid the doctor’s office and all of the nasty germies that are floating around there. You’re more likely to catch something from the doctor’s office than you are from maintaining reasonable health practices out in the real world.
For more information
Some wonderfully informed bloggers and resources are out there. Check out the Global Health Report from Christine Gorman, Aetiology from Tara C. Smith and an excellent article on swine flu genomics from Wired.
