The UN's World Health Organization has raised the alert over swine flu to level five - one short of a full-blown global epidemic, or pandemic.
A phase five alert means human-to-human transmission in at least two countries.

CONFIRMED CASES
Mexico: 159 suspected deaths - seven confirmed
US: one death, at least 91 confirmed cases
Canada: 13 confirmed cases
UK: 5 confirmed cases
Spain: 10 confirmed cases
Germany, New Zealand: 3 confirmed cases each
Israel: 2 confirmed cases
Austria: 1 case

SYMPTOMS - WHAT TO DO

Swine flu symptoms are similar to those produced by ordinary seasonal flu - fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue
If you have flu symptoms and recently visited affected areas of Mexico, you should seek medical advice
If you suspect you are infected, you should stay at home and take advice by telephone initially, in order to minimise the risk of infection


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The above copied from BBC News for any sharp eyed posters on here

Nice knowing you all, looks like me and Tyson are going for an I Am Legend scenario

But seriously, what are peoples opinions on this....apparently the government are sending out pamphlets to everyones homes with information about what to do in the event of a full scale pandemic.....

They reckon this is the closest since 1968 to a full scale Influenza pandemic.......anyone worried yet?

I'm not particularly worried, but I am taking a keen interest in the news reports about this.

thought it would take a while to get to Europe
the media insist on portraying it as everyone dying down in Mexico
however it does sound serious
only one case where i live and 45 in New York from the school system

It's serious! We just wont appreciate it until it hits our shore on the same scale as in Mexico!

That is my exact thoughts on this.......at the minute its far away, when you start seeing your mates wearing masks to the pub, you might appreciate it more.....

It apparently affects young adults more than anyone else, so thats 99% of funkypool lol

Well, I wont be accepting any more pics on MSN

Post removed by forum moderator

↑↑↑ obviously you're just a tool who doesnt really care that almost 200 have died from this..

misleadyouth-

I suggest you read the following before making yourself look stupid.....Bird Flu, as far as I am aware, never reached Phase 5 on the WHO pandemic alert scale......this probably won't kill everybody no, but many people will die and it has the potential to be the worst pandemic since the Spanish Flu that killed between 20 and 100 million people in 1918......if Bird Flu became a pandemic then there is every possibility
that a high % of the world would end up dead as it is a much more aggressive disease than Swine Flu....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8026121.stm

Snippets from that article-

The government's chief medical adviser warned that Britain will see "many, many more cases" of swine flu.
In total, 230 possible flu cases are being investigated in the UK.

On Thursday, Irish health chiefs said one man had tested positive for swine flu - the Republic's first.

Despite advice from the World Health Organization that governments should activate their pandemic contingency plans, UK health experts continued to play down the effects of the virus.

CONFIRMED & SUSPECTED CASES
Mexico: 168 suspected deaths
US: One death, at least 109 confirmed cases
Canada: 19 confirmed cases
New Zealand: 13 confirmed cases
Spain: 10 confirmed cases
UK: Eight confirmed cases
Ireland: One confirmed case
Germany: Three confirmed cases
Israel, Costa Rica: Two confirmed cases each
Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Peru: One confirmed case each

I have a joke about it, some may find it funny, others not.

Husband: We need to go fill our car up with petrol Luv
Wife: What if we catch the Swine Flu?
Husband: how will we catch that
Wife: at the petrol station
Husband: its in mexico not texaco

it affects teenagers from 13- to people bout 30s

I havent heard anything about this...

I blame my geography class. I hadn't heard of the WHO (World Health Organization) until two months ago in geog, now I always hear about it

In all seriousness, what types of diseases/flues are level 5, apart from Swine Flu? And does anyone know how it started?

only the worst are level 5

wikipedia----
level CFR examples
1 less than 0.1% seasonal flu
2 0.1% to 0.5% Asian Flu and Hong Kong Flu
3 0.5% to 1%
4 1% to 2%
5 2% or higher Spanish flu


case-fatality ratio (CFR)- the percentage of deaths out of the total reported cases of the disease.

asian flu-About 1 million people died in this pandemic

hong kong flu-The pandemic infected an estimated 500,000 Hong Kong residents, 15% of the population, with a low death rate. In the United States, approximately 33,800 people died.

spanish flu-
In Japan, 257,363 deaths were attributed to influenza by July 1919, giving an estimated 0.425% mortality rate
The influenza commonly called "Spanish flu" killed more people than the guns of World War I. Estimates put the worldwide death toll at 21,642,274
Mary Pickford (1892?1979), early motion picture star.
John J. Pershing (1860?1948) American general.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882?1945), American president
Woodrow Wilson (1856?1924) American president.
Prince Maximilian of Baden (1867?1929), Chancellor of Germany during the armistice.
Walt Disney (1901?1966), cartoonist.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859?1941)
Joseph Joffre (1852?1931), French World War I general, victor of the Marne.
Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1879?1952), Queen of Denmark

David Lloyd George (1863?1945), British prime minister.
Peter Fraser (1884?1950), longest serving New Zealand prime minister



That put in perspective?

so 2 percent or higher of those affected will die
might not sound like much but at the rate this is spreading it will be bad
the highest rating pandemic ever was the bubonic plague that-----wikipedia---Bubonic plague kills about 50% of infected patients in 3?7 days without treatment
Although I am sure AIDs is up near that if not higher
Edited at 21:21 Thu 30/04/09 (BST)

Edited at 21:23 Thu 30/04/09 (BST)

This is terrible and all that, but ask yourself...

Why hasn't everyone shut their borders to Mexico to stop spread of infection?

Surely prevention is better than cure, and to strike it at the heart will have better effects than to cure the millions of people who might catch this disease. Also, Britain has enough Tamiflu to deal with 30,000,000 people... So the pandemic will be well fought and controlled.

Please be aware that some people are affected by this more than others, so use caution and compassion when approaching a subject like this.

I myself live in Pennsylvania, a state away from New York, but there has not been any confirmed cases of the flu here. I work at a bank and we have CNN on all day long, so I am familiar with the statistics.

It's just such a terrible tragedy that the first confirmed death (in the US, I believe) was of a 23 month old child.

Closing the borders into Mexico has been a controversy in the United States for decades. If we have not done so already, I do not believe we will.

Obama has been considering it for a while however the economy would face another decline possibly to the very bottom

Came out tonight Chris.. http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0430/swineflu.html.. It's not probable any more it has been confirmed.

I was listening earlier to a med chief who sais as they dont know too much about this strain it is hard to pretict anything but one suggested that physical human contact with the flu seems to cause potential death whereas if the flu is concracted dud to interhuman contact it doesnt seem to be as dangerous..

Interesting thaught..