silly swines the AA grumpy column

[pantoandy]

hello its grumpy time again.

firsty my apolgies to the seniors for raiding your thread column but that was the only place i could find a health column.

so on with the story.

and a worrying epperdemic thats sprung up from mexico swine flu.

there is no known drug for it but it can be treated with seasonal flu drugs ???

thats got the grumps baffled ......



HEALTH experts from all EU countries have been summoned to Brussels for urgent talks this afternoon on the swine flu outbreak.

The meeting is the first in a series being convened by the current Czech EU presidency in the run-up to an emergency meeting of EU health ministers, expected for Thursday.

A statement issued by the Czech Government said the health ministers would be asked to “to evaluate the possible threat posed by the swine influenza outbreak and to co-ordinate European efforts”.

It went on: “The Presidency has been following the situation very closely, is aware of the seriousness of the outbreak on the American continent, and is determined to minimise the risk of impact on the European Union.

"Therefore, it considers it necessary to evaluate the potential danger and all possible steps forward.”

The Government's emergency Cobra committee is also due to meet today to discuss the crisis which has now killed more than 100 people in Mexico.

Tests were continuing to assess two people who were admitted to Monklands Hospital in Airdrie, Scotland, suffering “flu-like symptoms” after returning from the holiday destination.

Yesterday, one worker said: “The patients are being kept in isolation. It has been hell.”

A third Briton, who had been told to stay away from other people after he also returned from Mexico with flu-like symptoms, was cleared by tests this morning.

Businessman Chris Clarke, from Stanwick, Northamptonshire, said it was “very good news”.

He said today: “I think it isn’t unusual to feel slightly run-down after a long-haul flight but there was always an outside possibility that it was something more sinister than common or garden flu.

“I was reasonably relaxed because, statistically, the chances of having picked up anything in Mexico were relatively low but of course I have two young children and it is concerning to think that you might have brought something untoward back into the household.”

He said he contacted NHS Direct as a “first port of call” on return from Mexico to take advice and his case was “fairly quickly” passed to the Health Protection Agency, which dispatched a doctor.

“He was very, very helpful, took our details and took tests and started us on retrovirals purely as a precautionary measure,” he said.

“The tests have come back very quickly and they stayed in touch with us by telephone.

“So, yes, pretty impressed by the response.”

No cases of swine flu, the new human strain of a virus usually associated with pigs, have been confirmed in Britain.

Last night, Scotland’s Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon tried to calm fears.

She said the patients’ condition was “not causing concern” and there was “no immediate threat to public health”.

But hospitals all over Britain were ordered to prepare isolation rooms as panic spread worldwide.

In Mexico 1,600 have been taken ill since April 13.

Fears grew of a global pandemic that could kill millions after it was confirmed that the mutant virus is being passed between humans — and spreading fast.

Passengers who arrived at Heathrow from Mexico City on a British Airways jet were held for 45 minutes as health officials boarded to ask them to check for symptoms.

The passengers — including Brit Alistair Dixon and Mexican honeymooners Sonia and Alfonso Rodriguez — were all wearing face masks to ward off infection.

The US declared a public health emergency to deal with the threat after a rash of cases nationwide.

Eight suspected cases were being investigated at St Francis Preparatory School in NEW YORK, where about 200 students have gone down with flu-like symptoms.

There are seven further cases in CALIFORNIA plus two each in TEXAS and KANSAS.

A leading official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she feared Americans would die as the new virus spreads. Six people in CANADA were confirmed as having “very mild” cases of swine flu.

In NEW ZEALAND, 19 students and three teachers from Rangitoto College in Auckland were in isolation after tests showed 13 of them almost certainly had the virus.

Health chiefs in ISRAEL put 26-year-old Tomer Vagim in a hospital isolation ward after he returned from Mexico showing suspicious symptoms.

Doctors in SPAIN were checking three people who arrived back from Mexico showing symptoms, and four more tourists were undergoing tests in FRANCE.

The French public health director, Didier Houssin, warned: “In coming weeks we will be confronted with increasing numbers of people returning from that region about whom we will have suspicions.”

The outbreak is being closely monitored by the World Health Organisation, which declared it was “of international concern”.

Scientists were carrying out urgent tests on samples taken from victims of the new H1N1 strain, which spread from pigs in Mexico.

In Britain, government officials discussed the situation under the Cobra emergency committee last night, the Cabinet Office said.

The Health Protection Agency said it was working closely with ministers to deal with any threat.

Chief executive Justin McCracken said: “I think it’s likely that we will see some confirmed cases.

“We are gearing up to be ready to deal with it.”

A spokesman added that more investigations and tests were needed to assess the danger posed by the virus and determine how easily it spreads.

He said: “The virus has the potential to go pandemic. It is spread like an ordinary flu strain through coughing, sneezing and human contact.

“If someone has symptoms of flu they should speak to a doctor.”

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said government civil contingencies response teams were on standby with effective anti-viral drugs.

He claimed Britain and France were the two best prepared countries to deal with a flu pandemic.

World Health Organisation chief Keiji Fukuda said: “I believe the world is much better prepared than we have ever been for dealing with this kind of situation.”

Britain’s chief veterinary officer Nigel Gibbens also moved to reassure the public, saying: “Swine flu cannot be transmitted by eating pork products, and EU rules prevent imports of all live pigs and pig meat from Mexico.”

Some scientists have warned that mutated flu viruses like the Mexican bug could cause a bigger disaster than the Spanish Flu pandemic that killed up to 100 million people worldwide from 1918 to 1920.

Like swine flu, Spanish Flu was a strain of subtype H1N1 and most of its victims were healthy young adults. Other flu viruses usually affect the young, the elderly and the infirm.

The H1N1 virus can be treated with the anti-viral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.

But Prof Nigel Dimmock, a virologist of Warwick University, warned: “Swine flu could already have reached the UK. There really is cause to worry. If it’s a new virus no one will have any immunity. It will not be possible to keep it out.

“This has the potential to be bigger than Spanish influenza. It could get very nasty indeed.

“It’s a matter of how it spreads. It’s worrying because it appears to have infected 1,000 or so people.

“Viruses like these are very efficient at swapping genetic information, so I would not be at all surprised if it did spread very quickly and get as far as Britain.

“We have to hope for the best and plan for the worst.

“Our authorities are gearing into action. They are looking to see what is happening and looking at the possibility of getting a vaccine in place as fast as possible.”

Hell in the hospitals as swine flu hits UK | The Sun |News

AAG

in this the age of worldwide flight diseases like swine flu aids and who knows what other third world infections have the potential to kill around the world better than any nuclear or terorist bomb.

yet flights still come in daily from mexico where the infection is heaviest we must maintain viligilance and keep up health checks to prevent swine flu from becoming pandemic here in the uk and europe.

we need action not words from the world leaders and our own p.m .

i would have thought halting all flights from mexico would be a good start untill this epperdemic is cleared up ? or would that be too easy.

[FUBAR]

You would have to stop all flights from everywhere if you want to stop it, but before it has already got out, a bit late now. Besides isn't that a bit like locking people up in their houses when the plague showed up---"BRING OUT YOUR DEAD"........