

Swine flu deaths rise to 17 in Bay Area - rahimnathwani
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Swine-flu-deaths-rise-to-17-in-Bay-Area-5141467.php

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masnick
From a public health perspective, this kind of news story is actually very
helpful. The reason is that before H1N1, one of the main reasons for young,
healthy people to get the flu vaccine was to protect at-risk populations
through herd immunity. That is to say, you wouldn't want to give your
grandmother the flu when you went home for the holidays.

With H1N1, there is actual risk of serious illness or death for young, healthy
people. Public awareness of this is key in increasing vaccination rates.

Even without H1N1, the US government is pushing flu vaccines hard for everyone
[1]. Apart from a few very rare contraindications, pretty much everyone is
eligible for a flu vaccine. There are essentially no serious side effects.

So, you should get your flu shot.

1: The government's goal is to have 90% of 18-64 year olds vaccinated for
seasonal influenza by 2020
([http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/objec...](http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/objectiveslist.aspx?topicid=23)).
We are a long way away from that now, with vaccination rates for the general
population around 45% ([http://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/nifs-estimates-
nov2013.htm](http://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/nifs-estimates-nov2013.htm)).

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Angostura
Hang on, I'm in the UK and I've had flu shots, but surely these are effective
only against the standard seasonal flue strain de jour, not H1N1.

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Niten
At least in the United States, this year's trivalent vaccine includes a strain
of H1N1.

[http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-
season-2013-2014.htm...](http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-
season-2013-2014.htm#vaccine-protect)

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belluchan
I live in the east bay and I pretty much just got over the worst cold I've
ever had in my life. I haven't had a fever in years and I was stuck in bed for
nearly two weeks. It's been 4 weeks now and I still am coughing but it's
getting better. I don't know if it's this, but I've never had anything like
it. My entire body ached and nothing helped. pseudoephedrine, nyquil,
ibuprofen, ok well ibuprofen helped a tiny bit, but not enough to be
functional. It was just awful. I'm going to do a better job at getting
vaccinated.

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deletes
What was the diagnosis? Did the doctor prescribe any special medicine. Did he
confirm it was swine flu?

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belluchan
I did not go see a doctor.

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deletes
Honestly, I was afraid I was going to hear that. In Europe you usually see the
doctor for something as minor as a cold that persists for more than a few
days. It might look as a waste, but they will catch that percentage of non-
cold cold cases and prevent serious infection.

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davak
ICU doc here.

The money side is interesting too. Sorry to be a little blunt. Regular ole
influenza typically kills the older and sicker; that's a cheap death because
they die quickly.

H1N1 hits people our age who are generally healthy and strong. I bet on a
couple of cases I have spent over $500k saving the lives of an individual h1n1
patient. They probably spent half that again in rehab--if they live. Plus,
think of all disability, lack of working, etc.

Sure a bunch of things kill more people. But H1N1 really hits productive,
young healthy people.

This year's "flu vaccine" does have H1N1 protection. You wouldn't drive
without a seatbelt. When H1N1 is around, the flu vaccine is another "seatbelt"
you need.

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semerda
This article caught my eye. Just yesterday my GP in PAMF who also works at
Stanford Hospital mentioned the H1N1 and how it is on the rise in the bay area
attacking young folks.

Someone who never gets a flu vaccines I actually got one this time. He
explained that vaccines today carry the virus protein not the actual virus and
are a lot safer then before. Obviously the preservatives inside the vaccines
are still debatable and the skeptics will finger point at that.

Even though there are more deaths from the standard flu in USA, it affects
those with a weakened immune systems (elderly & sick). H1N1 attacks the
healthy and young folks. That is more serious than a flu which prays on the
weak.

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emeidi
How many people have died in the same timeframe in the Bay Area let's say in
car accidents or in homicides?

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TeMPOraL
While usually a good heuristic, such comparisons do not apply when dealing
with _self-replicating_ phenomena, like viruses and bacteria. It might be 17
now, but without proper care it could easily get to 7k or 7M.

~~~
ubernostrum
Deaths from H1N1 tends to be treated as unique and scary, despite overall
being much lower than deaths from plain old normal flu. It's hyped largely
because it has higher mortality for people who are not normally in the death-
from-flu demographic.

Back at my old job (doing special projects and data journalism for a small-
town newspaper), I got to do week-by-week tracking of the flu season during
the first year H1N1 was big in the media. Index of coverage is, surprisingly,
still up and mostly works:

[http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/](http://www2.ljworld.com/data/flu/)

For the period we tracked (end September 2009 to end January 2010), deaths
from "normal" flu outnumbered deaths from H1N1 by a factor of 33.

The demographic difference also comes through there: 14% of deaths from
"normal" flu were under 65, while 80% of deaths from H1N1 were under 65.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Thank you for a very informative comment.

I didn't realize that the normal flu deaths, even when looking at the
percentage of people under 65, outnumbered deaths from H1N1 by such a large
factor.

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corresation
As an aside, it is H1N1 and has a broad mix of genetic material (human, pig,
avian), obviously being transmitted human to human. It isn't generally called
a swine flu. And I believe this year's flu shot is effective against this
strain.

If a high casualty, large scale pandemic occurs (or _when_ , as many
virologists predict) it will dramatically reshape society. High density areas,
large concentration workplaces, any pathogen friendly concentrations of
people...society will change quickly. SARS had relatively low transmission and
a small victim count, but it still caused significant way-we-work damage in
the Toronto area.

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forktheif
Stories like this annoy me. I get why it's news, new flu strains are always a
possible rerun of 1918. But still.

Tens of thousands of people die every year from flu, mostly elderly people.
But now 17 mostly young people have died, it's more newsworthy.

It's kinda like they're suggesting that once you're 65, your life really
doesn't matter much any more.

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nodata
No it's suggesting that this is NEWs. Young people don't tend to die from flu.

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erkkie
It depends on the virus strain, in some strains it's the young and strong who
die easy due to having a stronger immune system reaction
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_storm)

~~~
TeMPOraL
Bottomline, the only entity that can be accused of ageism here is the nature.
I regret to inform everyone, but yes, _biology_ discriminates.

