the "Who has swine flu?" thread

[andygates]

So in summary, Reg, you expect it to be a total clusterfrack and that's your prediction for the autumn?

[Regulator]

Indeed.  You can cut it any way.  Make the comparisons in terms of total population, or size of cities, and you get big differences between NZ and UK.

Population density is irrelevant really.  I'm not quite sure why you introduced it.

[border-rider]

If you're trying to roll out emergency coverage to a country then the density of the population you're trying to cover  is quite relevant, I'd have thought.  It may make the difference between the viability and practicability of different triage models.

[clarion]

and different distribution models.  For the vast majority of the population of this country, the local distribution centre is a bus ride away for a flu friend.  In rural areas, different models exist.  But it's no secret that an average PCT will have two or three centres.  There's a difference between Tower Hamlets' model and, say, what prevails in Cumbria.

[Regulator]

So in summary, Reg, you expect it to be a total clusterfrack and that's your prediction for the autumn?

I predict that there will be a lot of mixed messages*, unnecessary panic* and extra deaths due to incompetence in emergency planning.  Part of the problem is that the UK's health service is premised on cure rather than prevention - public health medicine is chronically underfunded and under-appreciated.





*When you have idiots like Andy Burnham talking bollocks about pregnant women and swine flu, you know its going to be a rough ride.

[border-rider]

Back on-topic:

I thought I was coming down with it yesterday - woke up feeling awful, went back to bed for 2 hours and just felt crap all day, but no temperature and no real symptoms that an ibuprofen couldn't fix.  A load of red wine and a decent night's sleep and I'm feeling better

There's obviously various low-level lurgies in circulation...

[andygates]

Dachschweinhund Flu, obviously.

Reg: Mixed messages and panic go without saying.  The media will whip up both just as they have been.  Frankly, some of the interviewing has been shrill and silly, and even if the telly are wise, the redtops will put up contrary "THOUSANDS DEAD!" and "WOT FLU? WASTE OF MONEY!" headlines regardless.  In fact I would be surprised if the tabloids haven't already decided on their position and prepared a bunch of headlines.  Mixed messages and panic mean nothing.

Extra deaths?  Hope not.  One good thing about getting swiney is that it's a great trial-run for the avian preps.  There will necesarily be a bunch of reviews after the drama is done.

[geoff]

Talk about locking the pig-sty door. I work in a satellite office with ~20 people (part of a big organisation with ~8000 staff locally):

Yesterday the maintenance crew came round and installed an alcohol hand-cleaner dispenser just inside the building's front door.

Today a colleague rang in sick with swine flu.

...who's next?

[rafletcher]

Our office administrator took her 2 daughters to the GP yesterday, both assessed as sufferers whilst in the car park. All off today, daughters in their rooms summoning tea, toast etc. by mobile!

[perpetual dan]

The distribution model is working just fine for an emergency response down here - Mrs Dan's got it.
GP phones back at the end of surgery, plainly working through a long list. Local distribution is a two-bus journey, but is working smoothly.

I've been feeling a bit tired at the end of the days this week, but not ill.

I was due to be doing jobs on the house this week, so have easily avoided spreading it around work if I'm harbouring disease. I need to decide soon if I'm confident I'm well or not, as I'm supposed to be going to graduation tomorrow.

[matthew]

Mother has had flu (not diagnosed) but one day zonked on a sofa, two days flat out in bed doing nothing followed by two days taking things easy.

Sister has been diagnosed by phone and had Tamiflu collected from local hospital.

I have this odd head ache at the end of each day but wake up fine each morning 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

My employer provides us with horrible cheap cooncil soap - you know like the stuff we used to get at school? White slabs which end up with huge deep cracks in them? Nasty stuff. We get that and anti-bacterial gel in wall dispensers. I use neither because both of them make my skin fall off. I bring in nice natural soap from Lush, and I make sure all the sinks have a chunk, and I don't mind if anyone else uses it, and everyone appreciates it. People have been known to wash their hands before going into stinky houses so they have something nice to sniff at while they're there.

Some fucker has binned all the nice soap and left us just with the wall dispensed gel stuff. I am so cross! There were 2 huge new bits there yesterday, never been touched, and now they've vanished. At the same time, posters have appeared on all the cubicle doors and above all the sinks telling us how to protect ourselves from swine flu, so I just bet the soap has been ditched as a way of encouraging us to use the gel, even though soap is in and of itself anti-bacterial.

Well, fuck 'em. I'll just keep a lidded soap dish in my drawer containing nice soap and I'll use that.

[Hummers]

There's obviously various low-level lurgies in circulation...

Yes, there are.

Mine passed after 2 weeks but left me feeling pretty awful and completely wiped out.

Hummerella has been poorly too.

H

[Regulator]

Woohoo!  The National Swine Flu Helpline is supposed to go live at lunchtime.

1,500 call centre staff have been instructed in how to use a checklist.

Now't like doing it on the cheap.

[andygates]

Now watch: the great unwashed will all phone up [1] this lunchtime, the phone system will go kablooey, and the press will say it's a disaster and we're all going to die.



[1] Fecking sheep.

[simonp]

Now watch: the great unwashed will all phone up [1] this lunchtime, the phone system will go kablooey, and the press will say it's a disaster and we're all going to die.



[1] Fecking sheep.

don't think that's how you catch it

[clarion]

Now watch: the great unwashed will all phone up [1] this lunchtime, the phone system will go kablooey, and the press will say it's a disaster and we're all going to die.



[1] Fecking sheep.

Yup.

Would you like to guess how much information about this wonderful new service has been cascaded to GP surgeries? 

Go on - guess...

And all the publicity - posters, leaflets etc?  Well, we've had as much as we've received hitherto in respect of swine flu, being this: 0

[andygates]

Fecking sheep.

don't think that's how you catch it

That's why the incidence is so low in Wales.

[Mr Larrington]

I thought I was coming down with it yesterday - woke up feeling awful, went back to bed for 2 hours and just felt crap all day, but no temperature and no real symptoms that an ibuprofen couldn't fix.  A load of red wine and a decent night's sleep and I'm feeling better

I had that at the beginning of last week.  Whisky helped.

Obvious it's transmissible through the InterTubes.

[Fixedwheelnut]

 I'm off again today, got sore throat Monday night felt crap at work Tuesday ached all over and hot and cold flushes, feeling dizzy and headaches then generally got worse overnight. Temp up and down between 37c and 39c
 Stayed off yesterday and today Docs said to rest and take Paracetomol and Ibuprofen, it wouldn't be 'swine flu' as my temperature was going up and down not constantly high.
 I still ache and have headache but temperature seems more stable hopefully back to work tomorrow.

[clarion]

National Service now live.   Reportedly 2600 hits per second on the website.

[rogerzilla]

I'm off again today, got sore throat Monday night felt crap at work Tuesday ached all over and hot and cold flushes, feeling dizzy and headaches then generally got worse overnight. Temp up and down between 37c and 39c
 Stayed off yesterday and today Docs said to rest and take Paracetomol and Ibuprofen, it wouldn't be 'swine flu' as my temperature was going up and down not constantly high.
 I still ache and have headache but temperature seems more stable hopefully back to work tomorrow.

Docs don't know anything.  Those are classic 'flu symptoms - I've had about five bouts of it as an adult.

[mecwales]

Hmmmm.... had sore throat and a slight cough all last week, but no temperature. Went mountain biking yesterday and woke up today with a headache, totally blocked nose and slight temperature -  maybe that bout of exercise has pushed me over the edge.

[Regulator]

An interesting comment from a consultant at the Homerton Hospital on the Today programme this morning:

"The monitoring requirements are causing more problems for the NHS than the swine flu itself".

[vorsprung]

My mother in law has a flu-like illness.