by Tim Girton
Ville Voice Eats Correspondent
Here’s the news promo: “Tonight, find out exactly how to survive the swine flu, but only if you watch our newscast at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11. Otherwise, you’re going to die.”
Our news outlets, both local and national, are having a field day with the H1N1 virus, otherwise known as swine influenza A. Photo ops with masked Americans seem to be standard B roll while the anchors find the most dramatic tones to tell you about the coming disaster. It must be made clear though that the World Health Organization has thus far not declared this outbreak to be a pandemic.
Here’s the truth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are on alert Level 4, which the agency says comes into play when there are confirmed cases of person to person infection because that could lead to community outbreaks. Monday the CDC issued a travel warning in an effort to curtail non-essential travel to Mexico, where the outbreak is believed to have started. At the same time, the CDC also makes clear that, despite the name, no evidence exists that the virus is present in the food supply. However that did not stop Russia from banning meat imported from Ohio, according to the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.
This strain of the swine flu seems to be passed like other seasonal viruses, through contact with an infected individual. Protection is simple:
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing, then dispose of the tissue
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, particularly after coughing or sneezing.
- Hand sanitizers are also effective
- Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth
- Avoid close contact with sick people
- If you get sick, stay home and limit contact with other people. You could be contagious for up to 7 days
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
If you are affected by swine flu, and there are no reported cases in Kentucky as of right now, life will suck for a while until you get better. Like most flu strains, you’ll have a fever, cough, sore throat, headache, chills, etc. A doctor may prescribe Tamiflu or Relenza , but most patients in the U.S. recover without it. By the way, if you got a flu shot this year, it does not cover swine flu because experts didn’t anticipate this form of flu spreading the way it has.
The silver lining in all this? Your Derby barbecue is safe. Get the charcoal.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Treehouse Chef // Apr 29, 2009 at 9:34 am
Great overview regarding the swine flu.
2 Tracy Haus // Apr 29, 2009 at 8:10 pm
You’ve got to be kidding me. There just may be a special place in hell for whoever wrote this garbage. Well I guess time will tell if this disease is more serious than you make it sound .. and for the already dead and dying it is indeed serious. What about the health workers vaccinated in Mexico City who died within days of the virus anyway? What about the reality that most countries only carry enough for maybe 5% of the population to anoculate with tamuflu ??? What about the fact that in one months time we now have 11 countries confirmed and the death of a 23 mo old in Houston (who came from Mexico I agree)… have you been to Texas? The trade back and forth from Mexico is restricted, but still moving and no restrictions have been put on world travel. I hope your right and I’m wrong, but I would rather stay on the side of caution than to be so frivolous with lives as this article seems to suggest to be.
3 Alex // Apr 29, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Tracy … did you realize that the common human flu viruses cause something like 26,000 deaths a year, and of the 3 human flu viruses 2 of them are endemic with swine. So here comes a slightly different flu that has caused the death of one infant in the US, which sadly can happen even with the seasonal flu if not treated properly. All other confirmed cases have completely recovered, even the mexican child who was the first confirmed case of this new strand. So you have to ask yourself …. Why is this such a huge media feeding frenzy? Maybe the same reason they went crazy about the africanized killer bees that never showed up.
P.S.
Don’t be such a douche bad, I really don’t think god sends people to hell for writing an opinion piece that still tells people how to use caution.
4 Linda // Apr 30, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I completely agree with you Alex. It seems the media is on a feeding frenzy with any type of news that they blow completely out of proportion. If it is really as bad as the media says it is, the Mexican borders would be closed.
Also, I would advise against flu shots – does anyone really know what is in them?
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