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[G-Flex]

The problem with swine flu isn't that it's particularly dangerous, itself. It's the fact that it's a new strain that didn't have a vaccine yet, and that we had to keep a close on eye because we weren't sure what it would do or how it would mutate.

[LegoLord]

I believe it's more that we didn't have a vaccine ready; I'm given to understand that production and transportation take time (they do need to be kept cool, so I can easily see that part being true).  I'm no expert of course.

Regardless, this reminds me of something my brother once heard some one say:  "Oh, we went jumped through all these hoops for bird flu, and nothing happened with that.  Why are we bothering now?" - speaking of the swine flu.

That statement was idiotic.  Why?  Because the whole point of "jumping through the hoops" was to reduce the impact of it - ideally, to make sure "nothing happened".  If something bad had happened as a result of the bird flu, it would have meant that we failed.  The lack of a bird flu catastrophe in America doesn't mean we overacted - we may have done exactly what we need to, or just gotten lucky.  Any number of things could explain it, among them overreaction, but not automatically pointing to it.

[Areyar]

The problem with ANY flu, is that it has several hosts, in each host it is fairly isolated and somewhat differentiated, unexpected things happen when host H (hominid) gets infected with the strain from host A (avian) (or host P for porcine). When this happens, and this happens continuously every year, genes and proteins are exchanged and the strain becomes a hybrid.
Usually this amounts to nothing much, except that our immune system will have to reinvent antibodies against it. This is why you can get the flu multiple times, while mumps and other childhood illnesses only occur once or twice.

Sometimes the virus hits the jackpot however and the resulting hybrid is potentially more virulent or malign.

Vaccines are developed (not discovered) each year ahead of the flu season, only with a potentially more virulent strain, demand is higher than production.


The birdflu that was such a problem several years back, was not as such virulent to humans, but more so for the birds.
Uncounted chickens were destroyed to contain the spread of the illness. (Actually most WERE counted, twas my job for a while, in order to get restitution from the gov't.)

[Krash]

The problem with ANY flu, is that it has several hosts, in each host it is fairly isolated and somewhat differentiated, unexpected things happen when host H (hominid) gets infected with the strain from host A (avian) (or host P for porcine). When this happens, and this happens continuously every year, genes and proteins are exchanged and the strain becomes a hybrid.
Usually this amounts to nothing much, except that our immune system will have to reinvent antibodies against it. This is why you can get the flu multiple times, while mumps and other childhood illnesses only occur once or twice.

Actually, that's only part of the reason for flu's ability to reinfect every year.  Since it's an RNA virus, it has a very high mutation rate, meaning that it evolves very quickly, altering it's immunogenic components progressively (antigenic drift) as a response to evolutionary pressure.  That means that every year's flu will have been altered subtly, but enough so that our adaptive immune system can't recognise it.  What you're talking about is called (if i remember it right) genetic shift, and happens fairly rarely (about once or twice every 20 years), but the result is more drastic.  Wiki explains these things fairly well (I think).

Vaccines are developed (not discovered) each year ahead of the flu season, only with a potentially more virulent strain, demand is higher than production.

The birdflu that was such a problem several years back, was not as such virulent to humans, but more so for the birds.
Uncounted chickens were destroyed to contain the spread of the illness. (Actually most WERE counted, twas my job for a while, in order to get restitution from the gov't.)

Actually bird flu (mixed with human strains) is the real scare.  H5N1 has, judging from the 300-400 reported cases a mortality of about 63%.  Fortunately it doesn't spread easily between humans (yet).

[Areyar]

Right you are. 
I was trying to explain it in simple terms and didn't look it up.

[Krash]

Right you are. 
I was trying to explain it in simple terms and didn't look it up.

Well, I gotta take the chance and shine in the one topic I know something about.    People are much more prone to discuss philosophy/maths/programming on the net, and I don't know much about any of that.

[Nilocy]

So is swine flue RNA or a DNA virus? I can't remember...

[Areyar]

look at 3 posts ago...
RNA

[Zironic]

I'm still scared of swine flu. Most people really arn't concerned because we're only just starting to get into flu season. The main thing that worries me about swine flu is that it kills relatively fast for a flu virus. Humans have no natural immunity to it, or at least the vast majority don't. And it also seems to attack only healthy middle aged people.

Here's hoping it won't get as bad as normal flu.

It's a completely easy to defeat disease. People died because they were malnourished.

[zchris13]

*cough*mexicans*cough*

EDIT: This is a joke. I'm not really racist.

[Areyar]

yeah. old people are supposed to die, what's the fuss about? -mind you, I'm sticking around till I'm bicentenial. (unless they ban meat, that would make me kamikaze the capitol.)

[Puck]

People were worried about swine flu in the first place?

I, for one, wasnt shagging any pigs in the last few months.

[Areyar]

shagging would be fine, just don't snog them.

[Muz]

The swine flu annoys me greatly. It will be even more annoying when the same douches who were panicked about it start bragging about surviving it.

[Jack_Bread]

The swine flu annoys me greatly. It will be even more annoying when the same douches who were panicked about it start bragging about surviving it.

You might start seeing shirts that say "I survived the Swine Flu epidemic and all I got was this stupid shirt."