5 ms·

2,000 students at Washington State University report flu symptoms

22 points by andrewbadera 17y ago

TomOfTTB 17y ago
I have to say I don't entirely see why this is news. Swine Flu is no more dangerous than any other Influenza A infection (Influenza A accounts for about 70% of flu cases in any given year). It's distinguishing trait is it spreads faster than other flu viruses. But as the article itself says... "The overwhelming majority of our patients have had mild symptoms and are usually better in three to five days," the university said. None of the WSU cases have been fatal. I think a lot of people are confusing Swine Flu with Bird Flu in their mind and freaking out. Swine Flu may lead to more cases of the flu this season but it's still just the Flu. Assuming you don't have another underlying condition you should be fine with rest and chicken soup.
- arghnoname 17y ago
  The problem with H1N1 is that the general population has little immunity to it, so containing and controlling it is difficult. Had it been more virulent, this would be very serious. Why this thing is tracked and scientists take it very seriously is that influenza can rapidly mutate and H1N1 _could_ become much more virulent than it is today. The extremely deadly 1918 flu had a first wave that behaves like most flu outbreaks before coming back and killing tens of millions of people. That doesn't mean that will happen this time or that people should get panicky. Catching H1N1 in its current state is probably beneficial because it would confer stronger immunity to what might be a family of influenza that could be around for a while, but its spread is newsworthy. If the news leads to more people staying home when they are sick, even if the symptoms are more minor for them, and we get more herd immunity through increased vaccinations, that's a good thing. EDIT: I just wanted to emphasis that vaccination is definitely preferable to catching the actual disease, even if the latter would give strong immunity to future, similar strains.
  - xiaoma 17y ago
    The 1918 flu pandemic was H1N1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
    - arghnoname 17y ago
      I know, but that doesn't mean that they are equivalent. It just means some of their markers are equivalent.
      - Herring 17y ago
        So roughly how do people manage to classify them? I was under the impression they all mutated 100x an hour.
byrneseyeview 17y ago
Drop the "Swine" and the headline is as scary as it ought to be.
- timr 17y ago
  In this case, they've actually serotyped a bunch of cases, and they're H1N1. They're not merely speculating that this is swine flu.
  - byrneseyeview 17y ago
    Right, but "Swine Flu" is just "Flu we're scared of."
asdlfj2sd33 17y ago
Quick, get the FBI to harass some of those gene hackers and put some more regulations and restrictions around med. tech, that'll help.
meterplech 17y ago
there has definitely been backlash against the unnecessarilly scare-mongering of the earlier swine flu coverage- but, it is worth taking notice because of how easily transmittable it is. a slight mutation and this could in fact be a seriously dangerous pandemic
- axod 17y ago
  Is a "slight mutation" likely? Does this actually really happen? Sounds like more scare mongering in a way :/
- pmorici 17y ago
  "a slight mutation and this could in fact be a seriously dangerous pandemic" You could say that about almost anything including the common cold, could you not?
iamelgringo 17y ago
H1N1 is going to be a really, really big deal this fall and winter. It's time to set up your H1N1 website, and start selling "I survived the swine" t-shirts. I work as an ER nurse, and hospitals all over are expecting a huge influx of patients. It's going to be a miserable winter for me. :( The CDC is expecting 50% of the population to come down with it, close to a million hospitalizations and 90,000 deaths in the US alone. This out break already meets the WHO definition of pandemic flu. Most people that come down with it have a bad case of the sniffles, a cough and feel miserable for a while. But the problem with this virus is that it randomly hits younger people (age 25-50) really hard and sends them to the ICU. We've had 10-12 young people in our ICU this summer on ventilators with H1N1. Two of those people were pregnant mothers. <PSA> So, get your flu and swine flu shots this year. Wash your hands. Sneeze or cough into your elbow instead of your hands. If you're sick, for the love of health, please stay home and isolate yourself instead of sharing your germs with your coworkers. And, if you're having a hard time breathing, come to the ER sooner rather than later. </PSA>
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- axod 17y ago
  They said this at the start of the summer in the UK. There was talk of keeping kids from starting school in september because that's when everything would be at its worst. They setup round the clock manned telephone hotlines for advice. Those operators are now sleeping, playing cards, waiting for the phones to ring. Seems like most people in the UK have had a mild case of swine flu now, and it was pretty boring (I believe myself and my family had mild case of swine flu a month or so ago - we stayed at home, felt a bit rubbish for a few days, then got better). Is it really worth getting jabs for this? (Unless you're pregnant or have other medical issues). Is it really worth trying to isolate it? On the grand scale of things, the number of people likely to die from it seems miniscule compared to other threats. PS (When I started to type "myself" above, my fingers actually typed "mysql"! Hate it when that happens :/ )
  - jimmybot 17y ago
onreact-com 17y ago
"Swine flu is "the one that we're most concerned about," Frieden said. "Because if it does become more deadly, it could cause a very severe scenario" It could, but it does NOT. Swine flu is by far less deadly than seasonal flu. In Germany we have 15k swine flu cases and not a single death in 4 months. In contrast there care 20k flu related deaths in Germany each year.
- tokenadult 17y ago
  That doesn't say anything about a difference in the case fatality rate between the two strains of flu until you tell me how many cases there are of typical seasonal flu in Germany each year.
  - onreact-com 17y ago
    Did you read my comment actually? I just wrote: "20k flu related deaths in Germany each year"
    - gjm11 17y ago
      But you didn't say how many cases of (non-swine) flu there are each year, which makes it difficult to extract any information about the per-case fatality rate. On the other hand, if your figures are right then we can be pretty sure that swine flue is relatively mild, unless just about everyone in Germany gets flu every year. On the other other hand, (1) one thing that's unusual about the current swine flu epidemic is that it's happening out of the normal flu season, so some of the credit for the low death rate may be due to the fact that people aren't yet getting it in winter; and (2) no one is actually disputing that swine flu, as it is now, is pretty benign; the question is how likely it is that a slightly mutated version will turn up that starts killing a lot more people.
      - onreact-com 17y ago
        You still haven't read it: "not a single [swine flu] death". So the 20k deaths obviously refers to seasonal flu.
quantumhobbit 17y ago
It's all over colleges. I went to my school's clinic last Friday, Georgia Tech, and everyone who came in with any flu symptoms had to wear a mask. They had setup a makeshift, H1N1 triage center, separated from the rest of the clinic. Turns out I had bronchitis(hooray for antibiotics), but it was fairly scary how quickly H1N1 is spreading. It's not too deadly, but seems to be very infectious.
jhawk28 17y ago
I am so glad that I am taking all Online courses.
bowman 17y ago
I had swine flu this winter (July as I live in the southern hemisphere). I was bedridden for some days but the hype far too high. It had a strange upside. While delirious I had the most pleasant dreams...
killerrabbit 17y ago
Scary, huh? Makes me rethink my current "cold".

22 points by andrewbadera 17y ago

I have to say I don't entirely see why this is news. Swine Flu is no more dangerous than any other Influenza A infection (Influenza A accounts for about 70% of flu cases in any given year). It's distinguishing trait is it spreads faster than other flu viruses. But as the article itself says... "The overwhelming majority of our patients have had mild symptoms and are usually better in three to five days," the university said. None of the WSU cases have been fatal. I think a lot of people are confusing Swine Flu with Bird Flu in their mind and freaking out. Swine Flu may lead to more cases of the flu this season but it's still just the Flu. Assuming you don't have another underlying condition you should be fine with rest and chicken soup.

arghnoname 17y ago
The problem with H1N1 is that the general population has little immunity to it, so containing and controlling it is difficult. Had it been more virulent, this would be very serious. Why this thing is tracked and scientists take it very seriously is that influenza can rapidly mutate and H1N1 _could_ become much more virulent than it is today. The extremely deadly 1918 flu had a first wave that behaves like most flu outbreaks before coming back and killing tens of millions of people. That doesn't mean that will happen this time or that people should get panicky. Catching H1N1 in its current state is probably beneficial because it would confer stronger immunity to what might be a family of influenza that could be around for a while, but its spread is newsworthy. If the news leads to more people staying home when they are sick, even if the symptoms are more minor for them, and we get more herd immunity through increased vaccinations, that's a good thing. EDIT: I just wanted to emphasis that vaccination is definitely preferable to catching the actual disease, even if the latter would give strong immunity to future, similar strains.
- xiaoma 17y ago
  The 1918 flu pandemic was H1N1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic
  - arghnoname 17y ago
    I know, but that doesn't mean that they are equivalent. It just means some of their markers are equivalent.
    - Herring 17y ago
      So roughly how do people manage to classify them? I was under the impression they all mutated 100x an hour.

byrneseyeview 17y ago

Drop the "Swine" and the headline is as scary as it ought to be.

timr 17y ago
In this case, they've actually serotyped a bunch of cases, and they're H1N1. They're not merely speculating that this is swine flu.
- byrneseyeview 17y ago
  Right, but "Swine Flu" is just "Flu we're scared of."

asdlfj2sd33 17y ago

Quick, get the FBI to harass some of those gene hackers and put some more regulations and restrictions around med. tech, that'll help.

meterplech 17y ago

there has definitely been backlash against the unnecessarilly scare-mongering of the earlier swine flu coverage- but, it is worth taking notice because of how easily transmittable it is. a slight mutation and this could in fact be a seriously dangerous pandemic

axod 17y ago
Is a "slight mutation" likely? Does this actually really happen? Sounds like more scare mongering in a way :/
pmorici 17y ago
"a slight mutation and this could in fact be a seriously dangerous pandemic" You could say that about almost anything including the common cold, could you not?

iamelgringo 17y ago

H1N1 is going to be a really, really big deal this fall and winter. It's time to set up your H1N1 website, and start selling "I survived the swine" t-shirts. I work as an ER nurse, and hospitals all over are expecting a huge influx of patients. It's going to be a miserable winter for me. :( The CDC is expecting 50% of the population to come down with it, close to a million hospitalizations and 90,000 deaths in the US alone. This out break already meets the WHO definition of pandemic flu. Most people that come down with it have a bad case of the sniffles, a cough and feel miserable for a while. But the problem with this virus is that it randomly hits younger people (age 25-50) really hard and sends them to the ICU. We've had 10-12 young people in our ICU this summer on ventilators with H1N1. Two of those people were pregnant mothers. <PSA> So, get your flu and swine flu shots this year. Wash your hands. Sneeze or cough into your elbow instead of your hands. If you're sick, for the love of health, please stay home and isolate yourself instead of sharing your germs with your coworkers. And, if you're having a hard time breathing, come to the ER sooner rather than later. </PSA>

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
axod 17y ago
They said this at the start of the summer in the UK. There was talk of keeping kids from starting school in september because that's when everything would be at its worst. They setup round the clock manned telephone hotlines for advice. Those operators are now sleeping, playing cards, waiting for the phones to ring. Seems like most people in the UK have had a mild case of swine flu now, and it was pretty boring (I believe myself and my family had mild case of swine flu a month or so ago - we stayed at home, felt a bit rubbish for a few days, then got better). Is it really worth getting jabs for this? (Unless you're pregnant or have other medical issues). Is it really worth trying to isolate it? On the grand scale of things, the number of people likely to die from it seems miniscule compared to other threats. PS (When I started to type "myself" above, my fingers actually typed "mysql"! Hate it when that happens :/ )
- jimmybot 17y ago

onreact-com 17y ago

"Swine flu is "the one that we're most concerned about," Frieden said. "Because if it does become more deadly, it could cause a very severe scenario" It could, but it does NOT. Swine flu is by far less deadly than seasonal flu. In Germany we have 15k swine flu cases and not a single death in 4 months. In contrast there care 20k flu related deaths in Germany each year.

tokenadult 17y ago
That doesn't say anything about a difference in the case fatality rate between the two strains of flu until you tell me how many cases there are of typical seasonal flu in Germany each year.
- onreact-com 17y ago
  Did you read my comment actually? I just wrote: "20k flu related deaths in Germany each year"
  - gjm11 17y ago
    But you didn't say how many cases of (non-swine) flu there are each year, which makes it difficult to extract any information about the per-case fatality rate. On the other hand, if your figures are right then we can be pretty sure that swine flue is relatively mild, unless just about everyone in Germany gets flu every year. On the other other hand, (1) one thing that's unusual about the current swine flu epidemic is that it's happening out of the normal flu season, so some of the credit for the low death rate may be due to the fact that people aren't yet getting it in winter; and (2) no one is actually disputing that swine flu, as it is now, is pretty benign; the question is how likely it is that a slightly mutated version will turn up that starts killing a lot more people.
    - onreact-com 17y ago
      You still haven't read it: "not a single [swine flu] death". So the 20k deaths obviously refers to seasonal flu.

quantumhobbit 17y ago

It's all over colleges. I went to my school's clinic last Friday, Georgia Tech, and everyone who came in with any flu symptoms had to wear a mask. They had setup a makeshift, H1N1 triage center, separated from the rest of the clinic. Turns out I had bronchitis(hooray for antibiotics), but it was fairly scary how quickly H1N1 is spreading. It's not too deadly, but seems to be very infectious.

jhawk28 17y ago

I am so glad that I am taking all Online courses.

bowman 17y ago

I had swine flu this winter (July as I live in the southern hemisphere). I was bedridden for some days but the hype far too high. It had a strange upside. While delirious I had the most pleasant dreams...

killerrabbit 17y ago

Scary, huh? Makes me rethink my current "cold".