Swine Flu

Today all the world is abuzz about swine flu, so why should RantWoman restrain herself?

RantWoman all weekend has been hearing the words pneumonia and "working age adults." Today thanks to easing up on the caffeine, taking time off for art and music, and indulging RantWoman's need for sleep, the realization dawned that these two concepts suggest workplace exposure. Further, if people in Mexico get pneumonia while tourists get the flu, either the air is really bad in places like Mexico City (well it is, but there is still the working age adults issue) or the pneumonia suggests greater exposure to inhaled pathogens, probably also a workplace issue.

RantWoman previously heard the words "working age adults" and inhaled pathogen in connection with a USA today story from last year.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-04-16-200349119_x.htm

Basically some Spanish-speaking workers at a meat-packing plant in the US started developing a weird neurological condition. They all went to their doctors and the doctors were all mystified by this rare condition. At some point interpreters who had interpreted for different patients and different doctors about the same rare problem helped put the pieces together. When someone figured out that all the sickest workers worked on a part of the line with lots of risk of inhaled exposure to animal central nervous system material, it was a fairly easy matter to figure out how to protect the affected workers.

RantWoman thus finds herself wondering whether some specific occupational issue is a key part of the current swine flu picture. If so, considering all the potential economic consequences of possible measures to stem the spread of the problem, it could be really beneficial to figure this out sooner rather than later.

Similarly, RantWoman notes some coverage in the Guardian, another of RantWoman's list of websites that do things right on the accessibility front.

Some basic coverage

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico>,

A rant RantWoman herself could be proud of about factory farming:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health

In this connection, RantWoman remembers a story related to one of the last upticks in bird flu coverage about how poultry flocks in Burma escaped the same level of problems as other countries in SE Asia. First, factory farming is less common in Burma than in other countries. Second, Burma just closed its borders to agriculture shipments early in the crisis. Since Burma was less integrated into the global food factory in the first place, they turned out to be better off. It would be nice to have a citation about this at my fingertips. Well it would be nice.

RantWoman being a scribe rather than a pandemic flu specialist is going to take others' word about sustained human-to-human transmission of the swine flu virus at this point with the caveat that it's the end of the flu season in the US. Except for the cases with obvious link to something in Mexico, before flying into total panic, I want to know comparisons of flu numbers with figures last year at this time. I also really want to know whatever there is to find out about the geographic distribution of pneumonia cases in Mexico.

Someone RantWoman knows via email compiled the following additional resources:

If anyone is interested in swine flu updates, here is the CDC websitehttp://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/index.htmAnd if you want to follow on Twitter, here is the sitehttp://twitter.com/CDC_eHealthHere are the Interim Recommendations for Facemask and Respirator Use inCertain Community Settings Where Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Virus TransmissionHas Been Detectedhttp://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/masks.htm?s_cid=tw_epr_76

Despite all of RantWoman's numerous questions, she is also going to present just a tiny amount of hyperventilating, along with one self-care point.

A couple weeks ago RantWoman had her annual April cold. RantWoman's April cold nearly always coincides in Seattle with wave upon wave of tree pollen so RantWoman is quite certain that allergies are one contributing factor. However, this year the cold was worse than usual, witha couple days of feeling too crummy to do much except the barest minimum of obligations and drink a lot of tea. RantWoman pointedly ducked a couple obligations where she feared there was too much risk of just being a great big germ vector.

As RantWoman started to feel better, she decided the house of worship would be a manageable Sunday activity. RantWoman made her way there on the bus, which also had a couple people hacking away. When RantWoman arrived at her house of worship, half the people there were hacking around as badly as RantWoman. RantWoman's house of worship is on the medium huggy end of things: people definitely hug more than one might expect from stiff white people, but RantWoman knows there are plenty of places where people are way huggier. Well, not last week. As far as RantWoman knows based on last week, everyone who was sick the week before has recovered, but enquiring minds want to know whether the worse cole than usual issue has any traction related to this topic. RantWoman is a little bit interested in knowing this, but
RantWoman is the sort of patient who tends not to go see medical providers until she is basically bleeding to death, and that seems a highly topical response here.

Well, RantWoman in general wonders how important it is that absolutely everyone go to the doctor. Wash hands. If you are sick, stay home and avoid ways to share germs with more people, including doctors' waiting rooms, unless you have high fevers or pneumonia. In those cases, GO DIRECTLY to the doctor.

RantWoman acknowledges that new wonder drugs are supposed to nip the virus in the blood early and it could be interesting to know how soon after symptons first occur is really necessary to take these drugs for them to work. RantWoman also wants to know the typical course of the illness especially when pneumonia is involved: if health care systems could be overwhelmed with a full-scale pandemic, there could be a lot to be said for managing on one's own as much as possible. If RantWoman wants to fret even more, she supposes she can go find the links to the pandemic flu panels at the Super Duper Powerpoint festival. RantWoman does not want to do that--yet.