Browner_

An Auckland school group returns from Mexico with flu-like symptoms and are in home isolation ....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/heal...-like-symptoms

chippy64

It's all over the news here in the UK. They say students def have flu and most likely to be swine flu but won't know for sure for a while yet.

jmh

Yes, the journalist in NZ on the BBC said one of the options on the plan was to close all borders. Wasn't clear whether that was to keep people in or out!!

j19fmm

On the BBC radio news this morning they said NZ had said it was most likely to be the Swine flu, at odds with the article, eh? But then they've not mentioned here about the BA pilot having it either.

jmh

Latest I heard this afternoon is that the BA chappie doesn't have it.

whitesand

Very worrying, they're all from the North Shore. I wonder why they didn't take them straight from the flight to hospital for testing? Why let them go home when they had come from Mexico?

CarolineSwan

my friend from uk off the phone, she is coming to visit me and flys out of glasgow her monday... she called as she had heard they had closed borders etc but was told that flights still on but kids are all in quarentine

Browner_

Teacher from a second school now hospitalised.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/heal...eacher-treated

The response is all a bit village if you ask me...

"Ian Hooker, from Greymouth, said he had been sitting near the students but had not been contacted by authorities.

He was a school teacher and, although he felt well, wondered whether he should go to school today.

"Given the proximity of us to them we would have thought that some thought should have been given to quarantining, if not all the people on the aircraft, certainly the proximate people on the aircraft with a view to them not going to work," he told Radio New Zealand."

Bellasmum

Don't know about anyone else but if I was Ian I wouldn't be sitting around waiting for someone to tell me to what to do.

P2L

Our best mate back in UK was on flight into Heathrow after being in Mexico City on business. He has 4 of the 8 symptons but doesn't think its swine flu. He and family are in quarantine, been swabbed and have tamiflu.

BBC has totally played up their story apparently on the News at Ten, almost scaremongering, although they have since apologised to them

Charismatic

Why is everyone so panicked by this? Most of you are reasonably healthy and live in a country with an almost modern medical system, you have a very low risk of death (which is usually very fatal! ). It's just scare mongering by the media because they are short on stories at the moment, no one has tried robbing a gunstore with a knife recently and that.

Manflu, now there is a really serious hidden epidemic .

Browner_

Well, one reason is that this type of flu kills the young healthy ones more than the unhealthy ones, due to the effects of cytokine storms which make your immune system worse than useless.

Lets quote a specialist doctor in respiratory diseases and intensive care at the Mexican National Institute of Health.

"Despite the heroic efforts of all staff (doctors, nurses, specialists, etc) patients continue to inevitably die. The truth is that anti-viral treatments and vaccines are not expected to have any effect, even at high doses. It is a great fear among the staff. The infection risk is very high among the doctors and health staff.

There is a sense of chaos in the other hospitals and we do not know what to do. Staff are starting to leave and many are opting to retire or apply for holidays. The truth is that mortality is even higher than what is being reported by the authorities, at least in the hospital where I work it. It is killing three to four patients daily, and it has been going on for more than three weeks. It is a shame and there is great fear here.

Increasingly younger patients aged 20 to 30 years are dying before our helpless eyes and there is great sadness among health professionals here."


(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm)

Charismatic

Wasn't aware they had even developed a vaccine for this one yet?

Initial reports suggest mortality is under 1% for those who become infected (though obviously they'll need to wait because it is a new strain). In all cases outside of Mexico, so far, no one has died .

Browner_

Well, thats the good news at the moment.

Earlier, you asked why everyone is so panicked, well the stories about Mexico are quite frightening, and as we have already seen, anywhere in the world is only a short plane ride away.


Lets face it, you wouldnt go to Mexico City now would you, so after a couple of positive cases on inbound flights you might not be going to Auckland before long either.

Im not old enough to remember the 1918 spanish flu which killed 50 million, but I am old enough to know relatives who told me about it. If that pandemic happened again now, Im not sure our medicinal skills are sufficiently advanced to stop it happening again.

lapsed kiwi

I think the whole thing is quite worrying

I also find it sad/amusing that the usual suspects use this as an opportunity to have yet another dig at NZ. It makes me wonder if there is any possible news story that couldn't be twisted in such a way?