A/H1N1
The news is getting more unsettling recently: so far the virus has been fatal for people that had a previous illness where in a weak condition already. But in England two three previously healthy persons have now died of A/H1N1. One girl, aged 6,died within 48hrs after the first symptoms. The other case involved a 64-year General Physician who had been treating swine flu patients himself. Both the little girl and the doctor are believed to have been perfectly healthy before succumbing to H1N1. Before that, a man from Essex, fought for nine days before losing his battle against the virus.
So when I look at the situation, we already have a mutation of A/H1N1 that does not respond to Tamiflu (which is not made to battle H1N1, but seemed to help as a general treatment), and we now have a possibly aggressive variant that can kill someone within 48hrs.
Time to panic? No. Time to prepare!
In a previous post (12 Monkeys part 2), I attached an interesting PDF file called dealing "Preparing for the Coming Influenza Pandemic". I still think that the information in that is valid. Also the UK government has been circulating their own pamphlet ("UK Government pamphlet: important information about Swine Flu.") trying to educate the general public about A/H1N1 (unlike the Dutch government who are clearly not taking it seriously - yet).
There is just one paragraph in there that tells it like it is:
(...) Because it’s a new virus, no one will have immunity to it and everyone could be at risk of catching it. This includes healthy adults as well as older people, young children and those with existing medical conditions.(...)
Just remember: no one is save.
Hmm, I am going to update my emergency survival kit this weekend. You never know if I need it anytime soon.
