Flu Pandemic Update

from Slate, authorJon Cohen.

As the WHO steps up their alert to level 4, the fear factor emerges.  Is the fear justified?   I don’t know, I guess we can only wait and see.  The 1918 flu pandemic is estimated to have killed fifty million people worldwide, that’s a scary thought.   The early indications are that this 2009 flu H1N1 is not as deadly as the 1918 flu strain.

Well, what is there to say.   The number of human beings on the planet today creates a really large ecosystem for pathogens and our extensive travel patterns create a tremendous number of vectors for spread of a contagious pathogen.  Those are the facts on the ground.

Stay home if you are sick.  Wash your hands frequently and use tissues.  The antibacterial hand lotions are reported to be effective.   Face masks?  I guess not.

Be well.

clipped from www.slate.com Do Surgical Masks Stop Swine Flu?Probably not. Viruses, including the coronavirus that scientists believe may be the cause of SARS, are so tiny that they can easily pass through such barriers. Several studies even have shown that surgical masks fail to prevent transmission of the much larger mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes TB. While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that people who have SARS wear these masks, they do not even recommend them for people in contact with those patients unless the infected person can’t wear one. Wearing surgical masks outdoors, where virus-laden particles easily disperse, has even less value. To efficiently protect yourself from coronaviruses, you would need to wear a full-faced mask with a high-efficiency particle air filter. But such HEPA filter masks cause what Grinshpun calls “quite a discomfort” in short order.

This entry was posted on April 28, 2009 at 8:33 am and is filed under News, Connect the Dots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

| Print