5:13 AM
Simple Man
"Call me a contrarian and skeptic, but I just don't believe the H1N1 is anywhere near the threat the WHO and assorted governmental bodies are proclaiming. Have I had the H1N1? Yes, I have! I am almost never ill, and neither is my husband, but it managed to get us last spring when we were vacationing. A hundred documentated cases were reported the day we left. We coughed a couple of days, ached a couple of days, and wanted to sleep a lot. We ached and slept for a while after that. Our ages are 69 and 72, atypical, and NO ONE else in our household of five contracted it. Think calm, beautiful thoughts, and slather Vick's salve on your feet; a dollar store generic will do fine."
My Response: The thing to remember about H1N1 swine flu is not that it is some scary, killer disease, although it does have the capability of becoming that through mutation as it is a recombinant strain. What makes it scary is that it is more virulent than the seasonal flu, and damages the lung tissue if allowed to set up there the same way avian flu does.
Most get over it in just a few days, especially if they take Tamiflu early on, but a small percentage of patients get very, very ill. Those that it tends to hit the hardest are the young and strong, not the elderly and little babies as is the case with regular seasonal influenza. In your case, your age may have helped you; it is likely that you lack the strong immuno-response that a 17 year old might have that causes them to experience a cytokine storm and has killed a good number in their prime.
Further, one must consider what this small percentage of very ill patients will look like as the disease continues to spread. If half the people here in the U.S. get sick, we could easily see 3 or 4 million with very serious illness and in need of a ventilators.
Posted in: H1N1 swine flu,health concerns,pandemic
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