Is it worse than other flus, or just more unexpected? It's not like the "regular" flu isn't deadly for some.
I think that the main issues with swine flu are because it's a "new" flu: (1) there's no vaccine for it, which makes kids, elderly, and immunocompromised people more at risk of developing it *if* they're exposed; and (2) there is the possibility, in young healthy people, of their bodies reacting with a "cytokine storm" (which is cool in theory -- that the human body can do that -- but would suck in an epic way if it happened).
t edit
But, like David said, for the vast majority of people, it's just a flu.
Ah ha!
I'm pretty sure a friend of mine actually got West Nile, and he turned out OK.
Steph, it's hilarious that that's what you linked to, because I was literally just googling "etiology" in another context.
the difference is it is killing young healthy kids, it is new, there is no vaccine - that's the best I can tell.
The freakout here at work is completely unwarranted, but I do wish that if they are going to freak out, they would just close the office. It is breeding proximity anxiousness through the office and that is just stressy.
Steph, it's hilarious that that's what you linked to, because I was literally just googling "etiology" in another context.
I'm stalking you through the interwebz!
I'm stalking you through the interwebz!
Yikes!
Yeah, but on etiology sites, so it's pretty geeky.
OH! I just remembered, I meant to post yesterday - There was a guy eating sushi on the subway yesterday. Usually if people are eating it's like muffins/bagels chips/things you can reach into a bag and eat one at a time whatnot , or a totally different type of person stinking up the car with take out chinese in the big styrofoam containers or slurping on a messy sandwichy thing from a street vendor - but this was a guy mixing soy with wasasbi and eating with chopsticks and ?!!?!??!
Is it worse than other flus, or just more unexpected?
H1N1 is a new strain in humans and so it has the potential to be extremely virulent, which is common when a virus jumps between species.
A well-adapted virus will keep its host healthy enough to continue being a nice place for the virus to live so it can replicate and go on to infect others. So influenza (which is native in birds) won't make a bird very sick, but when a strain mutates and is suddenly able to infect humans, it has the potential to be extremely deadly because it's not really adapted to our species yet. (The common cold? Really really well adapted to humans. Ebola? Not.)
Influenza is worrying because (a) it mutates a LOT and (b) is extremely contagious and (c) doesn't really have a cure (most flu treatments are geared towards preventing a secondary bacterial pneumonial infection).
Fortunately, it's looking like H1N1 is not very virulent and will probably go away on its own.
On a side note, did you know that in the 1918 flu pandemic, the majority of fatalities were NOT from secondary bacterial pneumonia, but from an unusually violent immune reaction? (Hence the larger numbers of young people dying than in a "normal" pandemic - the people with the strongest immune systems had such a strong immune response to the virus that they basically exploded their own lungs with white blood cells. Fun fact!)
t /flu geek
[eta: And holy crap, I type slow. Teppy got there before me AND used big words like cytokine storm!]
I am going to keep smoking and not getting enough sleep until it goes away, just in case -- need to keep that immune system down!
