I got mine 3 weeks ago. Bandwagon jumper.

it'll be back for a stronger wave in the winter, which will likely be deadly.

viruses like this tend to be most deadly in 20-40 year olds due to their stronger immune system.

Whats it like across Europe?

It's not going to spoil anyones holidays is it? Is it safe to travel and what-not?

Oh spawn of Dally, I'll rise to the bait.

You're saying that a virus is more lethal to the people who are most protected from it ?

Is everything in your world inverted ?

No. He's just a real life clown.

They've even stuck posters up around my uni halls, it's getting beyond a joke!

No what is a joke is the fact that exam boards are considering letting those who go to schools closed due to the swine flu get their expected grades for GCSEs and A Levels without sitting the exams.

If there school can't be used for whatever reason send them elsewhere to do them - a sports centre, another school I am sure there are plenty of possible locations that could be used!

How many people in Britain right now have got bog standard flu?

That's just as bad, and life doesn't come to a halt for that.

Having seen on TV people who are supposed to be "suffering" from Swine Flu stood at a window on the phone chatting away to waiting journalists it would seem that (at the moment) a case of normal flu is much worse, I know the time I had it I could hardly get out of bed let alone stand (fully dressed and with make up on!) talking to journalists!

I am all for being cautious about the risks of any infectious disease but it seems that at the moment things are over the top. £7 million (or something like that according to the news yesterday) on a campaign telling us to throw away tissues and wash our hands?? wtf??

What? Are you being serious? Is he being serious?

Just take a minute and think about what you said there...

It's called a cytokine storm.

It's a potentially fatal immune reaction consisting of a positive feedback loop between cytokines and immune cells, with highly elevated levels of various cytokines.

When the immune system is fighting pathogens, cytokines signal immune cells such as T-cells and macrophages to travel to the site of infection. In addition, cytokines activate those cells, stimulating them to produce more cytokines. Normally, this feedback loop is kept in check by the body. However, in some instances, the reaction becomes uncontrolled, and too many immune cells are activated in a single place.

Gnereally a stronger immune system will overreact and too many cells will be activated.

This can be fatal.

Spanish flu in 1918 was most deadly in people aged 20-40 because of this.

That's it then. We're all DOOOOOMED!

Not really, but if the virus returns stronger in the winter as spanish flu did then potentially alot of healthy young adults will die.

did anyone see the group of cas fans with surgical masks on wondering round the north stand??? cudn't help myself had to barf a lung while they were stood next to me!!

Please don't post stuff you don't understand (unless you're an immunologist. Are you an immunologist?)

This strain of flu does not cause a cytokine storm. The words bandied around by the media at the moment include "virulent". To the average plebian that induces terror as they think that it kills people more readily. This isn't the meaning of the word. More people will die if the virus spreads, just like with any other flu, but this virus will more likely kill the usual suspects - the "Old".
The media desperately wants it to be death flu (and it sounds like you do too), but I fear they are going to be dissapointed. So when the Chief Medical Officer says things like "we need to not be complacent" and " we must prepare for every eventuality", he isn't talking about us. He's talking about the people who's job it is to monitor these things. We can get on with life as normal - it's only the media that wants us to panic to sell papers and watch their crappy "news" broadcasts.

Some medical jurno said at the weekend that the media only do two different medical stories, the miracle cure and the mass killer.

int that the truth!!

Sounds good and shifts the papers though. WERE ALL DOOMED!!!, NOTHING CAN STOP IT!

Then in small print, dont panic.

The coverage of the MMR saga revealed how truly useless and utterly reckless the media can be with medical reporting. I stopped buying any newspapers after that.

TBF they have a job to do and thats to sell papers, it's up to the individual to read between the lines.

Tell you what, you'd be safe stood in the West Indies slip cordon at the moment. The couldn't catch anything.

anyone see the japanese women at the castle on sunday morning in the masks.

pmsl

In Japan it's very impolite to infect someone with your germs, so if you have a cold you wear a mask to prevent such an insult. They hand them out free at all the railway stations in Tokyo.

Bdum-tsh

You just read that in Wikipedia didn't you ?

I'll believe what the bio-chemist told me and not some newspaper charlie.



Late edit...

Fsk me, you really did copy and paste from Wikipedia didn't you