Surviving the Swine flu

I.C.U.

We have seen the numbers and seen the effects of the swine flu. Somewhere in the back of everyone’s mind is if I get it, will I survive. The fact is there are a lot of ifs when it comes to this bug.

So at this snapshot in time, here is what we know. If you are between 20 and 50 and have no health problems, you stand a good chance of surviving the flu. However, if you do not qualify for that your mortality rate goes up.

For some reason people younger than 20 have not developed an immunity to this swine flu, and as a result they have a greater chance of dying. If you have underlying health problems your chances of dying go up.

Looking at the 50+ group, you will note that there are a lot of people who have underlying health problems that qualify like diabetes, asthma or other conditions that effect breathing. If you look at the demographics in the US, you will see that more than half of the people 50 or over have other health problems mainly diabetes and obesity. So doing the math, and you can see all those visits to the McDonald’s drive thru will cost you.

DCO Thailand

So now what do you do. Some people are convinced that no matter what they do, they will somehow get the swine flu. With the number of infected people growing daily in leaps and bounds, there is little to dispel that belief.  It is that contact with the unseen that has convinced them of that. It is like a reverse Pinata where you are still blindfolded but the Pinata is swinging a stick at you.

Then there are the ones who put on a surgical mask thinking it will help, but in fact it is more of a feeling and not a fact. The virus will pass through the mask, but it may help you from touching your mouth with an infected hand.

There are those that have purchased air cleaners that have a ultraviolet light in them, and that will do good to keep your home’s air free from the virus.  However that will do little when you need to venture out. So it looks the there will be a thriving food delivery service going on for a while.

What it comes down to is how your personal health is and how well your immune system is working. It is the only defense we have. Doing what you can to pump up your immune system is about all we can effectively do. If you start off behind the 8 ball, chances are even antiviral vaccines may not be enough to save you. So if this is all starting to sound like Darwin’s Theory of evolution and survival of the fittest, that is because that is exactly what it is. Nature is doing some pruning, and the swine flu is the pruning clippers.

To Track the H1N1 flu in near real time please visit:

http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/

If you have been reading along the last week or so, you may have noted a slightly different flavor to our posts. We felt this temporary diversion necessary to focus peoples attention on things we try not to think too much about. So as this short doom and gloom series of posts continues, please hold on it is almost over.


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