Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - H1N1. 32% of the population will be affected by this?!

LChoy · 09-10-2009, 08:31 PM

Health Hat:

Pandemic doesn't automatically mean some sort of death flu. It just means that the strain has spread around the world, and is community based.

Right now we are urging people to have good hygienic practices like frequent hand washing with soap and water, or alcohol based sanitizers. Avoid sneezing at people, use your sleeve or kleenex instead

The reasons for concern are:
- It's an animal to human based virus, so people don't normally have the antibodies for it. Being a new virus, the older generation will not be as protected by their antibodies either. The most recent viruses have all been animal viruses (Avian flu, West Nile, Hanta virus,..etc)
- H1N1 has spread really quickly to hit pandemic status. This demonstrates the infectiousness of this strain and maybe an exercise in how globalized we are as a species
- Regular influenza has killed more people every year than H1N1. However, with the coming flu season approaching and the tendency for viruses to combine and mutate into different forms, the fear is that H1NI, which is everywhere, will combine with the influenza virus and become an extremely infection AND deadly flu virus. This was what happened with the Spanish Flu
- The other worrying thing is that while most people who get H1N1 come down with mild flu symptoms, the virus has killed perfectly healthy people. In fact, one of the higher risk population is the 18-24 and healthy population. This is due to a rare condition that the immune response is so severe to the flu, that it ends up causing more damage than the flu itself and the person never recovers
- The government of Canada has ordered 52 million doses of flu vaccine. How they'll distribute it and who's first will remain to be seen. I do recommend a flu shot to help with the coming flu season, and when the H1N1 vaccine comes along, I would recommend it as well

For more information, go here
http://www.health.alberta.ca/health-...enza-H1N1.html

Post or pm me any questions, and I should be able to respond from the government's perspective

lchoy

09-10-2009, 08:31 PM	#41
LChoy First Line Centre Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Toronto Exp:	Health Hat: Pandemic doesn't automatically mean some sort of death flu. It just means that the strain has spread around the world, and is community based. Right now we are urging people to have good hygienic practices like frequent hand washing with soap and water, or alcohol based sanitizers. Avoid sneezing at people, use your sleeve or kleenex instead The reasons for concern are: - It's an animal to human based virus, so people don't normally have the antibodies for it. Being a new virus, the older generation will not be as protected by their antibodies either. The most recent viruses have all been animal viruses (Avian flu, West Nile, Hanta virus,..etc) - H1N1 has spread really quickly to hit pandemic status. This demonstrates the infectiousness of this strain and maybe an exercise in how globalized we are as a species - Regular influenza has killed more people every year than H1N1. However, with the coming flu season approaching and the tendency for viruses to combine and mutate into different forms, the fear is that H1NI, which is everywhere, will combine with the influenza virus and become an extremely infection AND deadly flu virus. This was what happened with the Spanish Flu - The other worrying thing is that while most people who get H1N1 come down with mild flu symptoms, the virus has killed perfectly healthy people. In fact, one of the higher risk population is the 18-24 and healthy population. This is due to a rare condition that the immune response is so severe to the flu, that it ends up causing more damage than the flu itself and the person never recovers - The government of Canada has ordered 52 million doses of flu vaccine. How they'll distribute it and who's first will remain to be seen. I do recommend a flu shot to help with the coming flu season, and when the H1N1 vaccine comes along, I would recommend it as well For more information, go here http://www.health.alberta.ca/health-...enza-H1N1.html Post or pm me any questions, and I should be able to respond from the government's perspective lchoy __________________ Last edited by LChoy; 09-10-2009 at 08:34 PM.