A-H1N1 (swine 'flu) Wave 2.0

[The Atheist]

I think it worth early advice of some worrying signs of the second wave of H1N1 which is presently hitting New Zealand - early signs are that H1N1.2 is behaving somewhat differently to the earlier release.

I doubt this has made news overseas yet as the WHO hasn't caught up with it and official figures from the Ministry of Truth are not due until tomorrow, but H1N1 has exploded in the past 2-3 weeks here and there are some things we didn't see during H1N1.1.

It swept through the country last year, starting in early winter, but did not appear to be all that severe. Around 30% of the population was shown to have been infected during that time, many of whom didn't show any symptoms at all. Only 2 or 3 schools in the entire country closed and a total of 58 people had to be moved to intensive care. 20 deaths.

Now, despite the 30% who have already had it and another ~1 million vaccinated, we have several entire regions looking at closing all of the schools in the region! Absentees are at 15-60% in some parts and hospitals have gone from the odd 'flu case to immediate overload.

Some of the problem may be due to complacency on assumption that H1N1 had just disappeared, and I see WHO only a couple of weeks ago was thinking of declaring the pandemic over.

It isn't!

If you haven't been vaccinated, now would be a good time to get it done - the symptoms, severity and infectiousness all seem to have increased markedly from the first round.

It could be some weird aberration of regions which didn't have high infection rates last year, but the results over the past week have been indicative of trouble.

Watch this space.

[OrphanPip]

I haven't been too heavily concerned about the H1N1, but vaccine adherence was rather good in Canada, with something like 68% getting it. The strain this coming flu season should be different, but I'm banking on the vaccine still being moderately effective.

[qimissung]

It was hard to get ahold of the vaccine here, and overall the news kept saying it was going to get bad, but it never did. So now the virus has finally mutated into something more severe, so now we have to worry about it for yet another seaon? Will this pandemic ever end?

[JuniperWoolf]

I have friends who bug me relentlessly about how vaccinations are going to warp my cells and turn me into a zombie, then I have friends who rant and rave about anti-vaccination hippies. I decided to do what I do every time that I get sick of a discussion: ignore it.

I'm just going to pretend that Swine Flu and it's vaccination doesn't exist. My dad and brother had it last year, and I just took care of them as though they had the regular flu. Apathy = problem solved.

[Helga]

I had to get the vaccine since I work in health care, we are in priority. My son got it too because he has asthma. I know people say you shouldn't get them but when you have some illness like my son it can be serious so I'd rather do it.

[JBI]

I'll put it this way, people made too big a scare of H1N1, and all the hysteria didn't amount to anything. If people continue on this route, the effect will be disastrous, rather than beneficial. Hypochondria is a medical condition.

[OrphanPip]

Well vaccination is by far the more sensible decision. Less than 1/1M die from adverse effects of influenza vaccines, compared to the 14,200+ deaths (this is vastly under reported since there are only 300 reported deaths in India, highly unlikely given there were 2000 deaths in the EU) worldwide in 2009 from swine flu, you'd have to vaccinate the global population 3 times over to cause that much death.

Or the put it into context, last year in Canada one person died from the vaccine, and 114 died from the virus.

Frankly, the fact is that routine influenza vaccination for at risk groups, the elderly, young children, and those with immune and respiratory system problems, should be done for the seasonal and the H1N1. Vaccination is a sensible, practical, and effective way to lower influenza death numbers.

Edit: Vaccination fears are almost always unfounded, consider that every person in Canada nearly has received the Measles vaccine, the chance of dying from the vaccine in your first 3 years of life is way less than the chance of dying in a car crash sometime over your life. Yet many parents who refuse to give a vaccine to their child happily drive their babies around the suburbs on a daily basis.

[The Atheist]

It was hard to get ahold of the vaccine here, and overall the news kept saying it was going to get bad, but it never did. So now the virus has finally mutated into something more severe, so now we have to worry about it for yet another seaon? Will this pandemic ever end?

Yes, the pandemic will end at the end of the next northern winter.

Also, please note that there is no claim made of viral mutation yet. The pandemic is behaving somewhat differently this year compared to last, but viral mutation hasn't been claimed at all.

[OrphanPip]

Considering how quickly influenza viruses change, the strain will be slightly different, but this is the same gradual process that occurs with the usual seasonal flu. If it suddenly became much more deadly, that would be surprising.