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The WHO declare the swine flu a pandemic.

Mitchman

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    The World Health Organisation declared a swine flu pandemic on Thursday, raising its alert to the maximum level six, the Swedish government said.

    Swedish Health Minister Maria Larsson was to hold a press conference later Thursday following "the WHO's decision to raise the pandemic level to six for the influenza A(H1N1)," the government said in a statement.

    A total of 74 countries are now affected by the virus.

    The WHO was holding a meeting at its headquarters in Geneva amid growing evidence the virus, which originated in Mexico two months ago, is now being widely transmitted between humans in Asia and Europe as well as the Americas.

    Under WHO guidelines, one key criteria for declaring a pandemic would be established community spread in a country outside the first region in which the disease was initially reported.

    The Geneva-based UN body last declared a flu pandemic 40 years ago.

    On Wednesday, the number of A(H1N1) infections reported to the health agency by the 74 countries had reached 27,737, including 141 deaths.

    The figures were released before authorities in Guatemala reported the country's first swine flu-related death, when a 12-year-old boy stricken by the virus died from kidney failure.

    Guatemala is the eighth nation to report a death linked to swine flu. All fatal cases have been in the Americas and the Caribbean.

    The vast majority of deaths have been in Mexico where 108 are known to have been killed by the virus. More than 6,133 have been infected there.
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    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090611/health/health_flu_who_sweden
     
    Warning~ Swearing
    Spoiler:

    Oh joy!
     
    ^Stolen from Rukario.
    Do you really need to make a topic about every single news headline? We are quite capable of reading the news ourselves you know. Or have you been appointed the PC news reporter?
     
    Technically it is a pandemic. It also could merge with the normal flu and become deadlier. Right now, it's doing exactly what the Spanish Flu did. Mild outbreak in summer, spread in Summer. Now we have to wait and see if millions will die in the winter..:]

    Edit: Just so people don't think I am panicing or what ever, I do not actually think this will kill millions. I just think it will fade into the background.
     
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    That is the first thing I heard about Swine flu in weeks.

    I totally don't consider it a pandemic for many reasons. But I wont explain them all since I don't want to bore all of you.

    According to my cousin(who is a doctor in California) we have the Swine Flu under control. Of course people will die! It's a virus and it keeps changing. Like, we have enough vaccines and medication and stuff like that.
     
    Todoroki Is said:
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090611/health/health_flu_who_sweden
    Click to expand...

    WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-*shot*

    ......But seriously, I'm not gonna worry about this. This virus doesn't even seem to be all that deadly.

    wikinews.org said:
    Saturday, June 6, 2009
    The H1N1 swine flu virus has now spread to 66 different countries throughout the globe, with at least 19,273 confirmed cases and 117 deaths having been reported according to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) tally. A majority of the cases were reported by the United States, which now has at least 10,053 confirmed infections from the disease.
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    One hundred and seventeen deaths. There are about 4 billion people in the world. Unless this number suddenly jumps to extremes, I'm not gonna freak.
     
    Not surprised; although I expected this news to be released much earlier. o.o
     
    I'm not really caring for it since I'm not traveling to places with confirmed cases and there are no confirmed cases in my area.
     
    Not going to doubt WHO, because it met some kind of requirement. But there are much more dangerous, deadly, and widespread diseases out there.

    Heck, the regular flu is worse than the swine flu.
     
    For now, sure, but we have no immunity to H1N1 and now that it's getting more and more widespread, who's to say it won't mutate into something that's more dangerous?

    To be honest, I was kind of surprised when I went to find more info about H1N1 since the news had all but dropped it from the radar only to find it has indeed been getting worse. Guess it was overhyped so much that most media outlets just got bored with it and stopped reporting till now. <_<;
     
    well what can we do just do what you are doing now wash your hands and stay away from people with the swine flu it isnt that hard
     
    I'm a bit curious as to why all these animal diseases are suddenly mutating to affect humans. Within the past 50 years, HIV (most other animals had specified immunodeficiency viruses, but humans didn't get theirs until the '60s), avian flu (birds → humans), and swine flu (pigs → humans). Within the other few millenia of human history, there have barely been a handful of cases like this. For three separate incidences to happen so close together...

    I know I'm a pretty paranoid guy, but this is some serious conspiracy theory fuel.
     
    Never thought of it like that. Ah, well. Like all things, this too shall pass. There's definitely more serious diseases out there, but that doesn't mean we ignore the littler ones. To contradict myself, I really don't think artificial immunization is a good idea.
     
    Neiteio said:
    I'm a bit curious as to why all these animal diseases are suddenly mutating to affect humans. Within the past 50 years, HIV (most other animals had specified immunodeficiency viruses, but humans didn't get theirs until the '60s), avian flu (birds → humans), and swine flu (pigs → humans). Within the other few millenia of human history, there have barely been a handful of cases like this. For three separate incidences to happen so close together...

    I know I'm a pretty paranoid guy, but this is some serious conspiracy theory fuel.
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    Goes to show how pathetic humans are to go to such extremes. [/joke]

    But you can't really blame HIV. I've read from a text book that an African hunter had gotten lost in the forest for days without water. He found a monkey, killed it, and drank it's blood to survive. And guess what? That monkey had SIV!
     
    Mage said:
    Goes to show how pathetic humans are to go to such extremes. [/joke]

    But you can't really blame HIV. I've read from a text book that an African hunter had gotten lost in the forest for days without water. He found a monkey, killed it, and drank it's blood to survive. And guess what? That monkey had SIV!
    Click to expand...

    Still though, under normal circumstances nothing would have happened, as SIV is specialized to affect apes, not humans (regardless of how "similar" we are, we are two separate species). Besides, various peoples have been eating monkey and been exposed to ape blood for a long time... so why now? Or rather, how the hell was the virus' first generation able to cross species so quickly?
     
    Lightning said:
    For now, sure, but we have no immunity to H1N1 and now that it's getting more and more widespread, who's to say it won't mutate into something that's more dangerous?
    Click to expand...

    The flu virus mutates dramatically every thirty years. It also mutates slightly every year, and I don't think this strain will mutate into something dangerous any time soon.

    Swine flu itself is not deadly. It IS the flu, just a mutated virus that's causing it. People are over-reacting about it being a 'pandemic' and how it's as bad as the Spanish flu. The Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918 killed between 50 to 100 million people in just over a year. This virus hasn't even infected that many people, and the people who died from it were old, unhealthy or immunodeficient. A perfectly healthy person shouldn't have to worry about the swine flu, though it causes some nasty symptoms. I myself have a suspected case, and it really is quite nasty, but nothing some medicine can't take care of.

    In the end, it isn't something we should lock ourselves in our homes for. There are plenty of deadly diseases that are easier to catch than the swine flu, and you don't hear about them everyday. The normal flu causes the death of 4000 people every year in Australia, and these people are old or immunodeficient or have an underlying disease. So the swine flu shouldn't be such a worry for young, healthy people.

    We have two confirmed cases at our school, and no one showed up the next day at school when the cases were announced. It's just fear of something we don't know much about. People are just scared because they heard on the news that a few hundred people died of the swine flu and that they might be next. I know people at my school who were perfectly healthy who went over to their local clinic and got themselves tested for the swine flu, and it was plainly obvious that they didn't have it.

    Many of us are just scared about something we don't know about. We need to inform ourselves before taking uninformed decisions. This disease is a test of how we respond to a problem. Most of us took the word of the media and stayed home, thinking it was the right decision to make. The news channels said swine flu was 'potentially deadly', and half our school stayed home when one child was ill with it. This just shows how uninformed and reckless we are.

    Neiteio said:
    I'm a bit curious as to why all these animal diseases are suddenly mutating to affect humans. Within the past 50 years, HIV (most other animals had specified immunodeficiency viruses, but humans didn't get theirs until the '60s), avian flu (birds → humans), and swine flu (pigs → humans). Within the other few millenia of human history, there have barely been a handful of cases like this. For three separate incidences to happen so close together...

    I know I'm a pretty paranoid guy, but this is some serious conspiracy theory fuel.
    Click to expand...

    Actually, avian flu was the cause of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Swine flu had existed since the late fifties, and some Muslim sheikhs think that HIV is a punishment from God. Either way, we're just gonna have to live with them.

    About your paranoia...Someone in our class suggested that swine flu was created by the Americans to shift the news away from the financial crisis. Whether it's true or not, people are still worried about it.
     
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    On the serious side: I don't believe this is much to worry about, most of the people who died didn't get health care fast enough, or good enough health care. It'll probably die down when vaccines become available.



    On the non-serious side:Well, if we have to worry about zombies because of this, we need to be prepared. We'll need shotguns, chainsaws, some explosives, the Oscar-Meyer Wiener Mobile, and a a lawn-mower or three
     
    Pishaw, Swine Flu is comprised of Asian Swine Flu, American Swine Flu, Bird Flu and Human Flu.
     
    Tsk...The weird thing is..my home country the Philippines is still on high alert over this with several schools and universities shut down on the opening of the school year. With 'round the clock news updates. =/
     
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