Comments on: Swine Flu Alert Level Raised by WHO https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:50:21 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537855 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:50:21 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537855 Right now the swine flu is just regular flu, meaning that if it took th enormal course of “seasonal” (regular) flue then, for instance, about 30 or 40 thousand people would die in the US.

So yes, swine flue is serious because all flu is serious.

Now, out of season flu and flu with swine links, for various reasons, historically can becom extra bad. In the case of the 1918 flu, which killed off a measurable percentage of our species, a swine-something else ‘hybrid’ came around out of season and made lots of people sick but was kind of average for a flu, then went away, then came back and was as bad as anyone could imagine.

The fear is that this will happen today, but we have some tools to deal with this that may help.

]]> By: air monitoring https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537854 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:45:29 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537854 The flu has a way of evolving into deadlier more resistant strains, and that is what causes the most concern. It seems like we should all eat less pork, thereby reducing hog factory populations, and that may slow down the evolution of future flu strains?

]]> By: long island gal https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537853 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:23:58 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537853 At this kind of level declared by WHO, swine flu should not be taken for granted by people. This is totally serious. There may be some medicines to cure it, it would always be better to prevent it. Everything that we do must be done carefully because once we have it, we might not notice it and get worse.

]]> By: Chrystal K. https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537852 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:56:14 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537852 Is swine flu anymore dangerous than the regular flu that we’re used to?

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537851 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:37:44 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537851 Jackel: Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. Most likely people who got it the first time will be resistant to the second wave, and most likely a vaccine will be effective.

]]> By: Jackal https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537850 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:30:00 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/11/swine-flu-alert-level-raised-b/#comment-537850 “We are warned that a second wave of the flu may pass through areas that have already experienced a first wave.”

Does this mean that the virus will mutate to the point that the antibodies of people who got it on the first wave will no longer be effective? If so, does that mean a vaccine will no longer be effective against the new virus?

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