Is the swine flu a serious problem or another over hyped disease fueled by the media?

Should I be worried about this or not? Now the WHO says that 7 people have died in Mexico rather than the 100+ figure. Do you remember something called SARS from a few years ago? It disappeared rather quickly why will the swine flu be anything different?

The swine flu virus is perhaps the trickiest known to medical science; it constantly changes form to elude the protective antibodies that the body has developed in response to previous exposures to influenza or to influenza vaccines. Every two or three years the virus undergoes minor changes. Then, at intervals of roughly a decade, after the bulk of the world's population has developed some level of resistance to these minor changes, it undergoes a major shift that enables it to tear off on yet another pandemic sweep around the world, infecting hundreds of millions of people who suddenly find their antibody defenses outflanked.

Even during the Spanish flu pandemic, the initial wave of the disease was relatively mild, while the second wave was highly lethal

Based on our reporting hospitals, the media is not over hyping, but probably under reporting the danger. We have had only one fatality so far, but have over 150 critically ill patients in Houston alone.

Other have mentioned in their answers the danger of the virus is in part due to the lack of immunity to this new strain. The strain here in Texas has mutated to become particularly dangerous in the last few days. Patients are feeling fine and within 24 hours are admitted and on life support.

One thing that has not been mentioned is all of the unusual methods of the virus spreading.

Despite what pork lobby is saying, yes you can definitely get Swine flu from eating pork. You can also get it from exposure to hundreds of other products manufactured using pork byproducts, as this provides a fertile medium for the virus to grow.

Most of the fatalities that have occurred so far in Mexico have not been transmitted person to person, but rather through food or pork byproducts. In fact the largest vector seems to be copy and printing paper. About 90% of this paper type is manufactured using pork byproducts. The only U.S. fatality so far has been linked to copy paper contaminated with the virus.

Many pet foods and toys use pork or pork byproducts. Also most of the leather goods (belts, shoes, wallets, coats, purses) sold in the U.S. are made of pigskin.

Please exercise caution in where you go, what you wear, and what you eat. Make sure to avoid all swine related products.

Dr. Hasan T. Jafri, MD
Director, UTSE Medical Center Infectious Disease Laboratory

yo dont even trip, media just wants publicity and wants attention.. i mean the flu is fo sho and all, but ey comeo n dont worry, i mean its spreading small, its like the recession were in at, it spended for about 4 months, then its going up like right now.. so dont trip about this.. just wait for the vaccine and wait for it and your good! ;D
im in cali, so im good yee!!

swine flu is serious. many people r dieing from it. but its not the pigs fault. now all those innocent pigs are being killed in egypt. they're killing all the pigs there when theres no case of swine flu there!! they're stupid to kill them. the swine flu started when the bird with the disease pooped in a pig pen. and then the pig digested it and then it entered the pigs body. and when the pig sneezes or licks something and a human touches it. the human now gets the swine flu. so its not really the pigs fault. its the birds.

Nah, I dunno. Keep out of mexico and major airports. But I wouldn't worry, from what I found out it isn't very deadly and if it gets bad there's effective treatment. Although there is an issue with doctors giving drugs to everyone who thinks they have it, so if it developes a drug resistant strain it'll be a bigger issue.
Yeah, for now don't worry.

i think it's more of an awareness let's-scare-them-so-they're-safe thing.. it's not hard to be safe and wash your hands.. i think it's better to play it safe. i personally think it will blow over, but there's always a chance.

The alert is now at a level 5. (it only goes up to level 6)

it is something to be worried about.

MAKE MORE TAMIFLU !!!!!!!


They are hyping it - more people die each day from cancer, car accidents or work related accidents than this flu.

i think its a serious problem because it keeps spreeding and there isnt that much medication for it and people are dying from it. but i dont really know much!

Yes!! it is rated 5 out of 6 on the epidemic scale! yikes! be careful! and I mean its not that hard either
wash hands
cover mouth
stay away from crowds

serious

I AGREE
The media just has it on there because they have nothing better to talk about

Nope...it fueled by airplanes. Sorry, the flu been with us for a long time.

its a bad thing. u should be worried stay clean and dont share anything!!!

Wow, aren't you something... I admit, they ARE talking about it a little too much-but a little. You don't understand the H1N1 virus.

I am so just annoyed by this. It's not your fault. Don't call it the Swine Flu because that's NOT what it is. It's the H1N1 virus that we call the Swine Flu when in reality, Swine Flu is already a different flu. This has caused the pork industry to falter. H1N1 is NOT food-borne.
We've NEVER HAD H1N1 before which is why we keep hearing about it. It has components of Swine Flu, Bird Flu, and human influenza. Here's an answer I gave someone before.

The alert level just reached a 5 on the pandemic scale out of 6 so therefore (also said by Margaret Chan-head director or WHO) a pandemic is imminent which are the exact words she used. But a pandemic isn't how severe (kind of) it's mostly where it's at and how it's spreading which is why it's a 5 out of 6. You can search online for the level 5 criteria. It's mostly just evidence of human to human transmission and in how many countries in a WHO associated state. No one is immune to it because we've never seen this before. We don't know how it will mutate and we don't know when which is why influenza ESPECIALLY a new kind is so complicated.
Don't call it the Swine Flu because it's hurting the pork industry-THIS DISEASE IS NOT FOOD-BORNE. Call it the H1N1 virus because that's what it really is. It has components of the swine flu existent in pigs and humans AS WELL AS the bird flu and human influenza. The reason it's all over the media is because there is no vaccine and there is no antiviral to fight it since it IS a new thing that we've never seen before.
That said, it is not something to be seriously worried about. Just use simple common sense but do a little more about it. Do the regular things like washing your hands (20 seconds with the soap and 15 to rinse it off-put your hands in the water BEFORE you apply the soap), cover you mouth when you cough by coughing onto your ARM (area close to your shoulder) because coughing into your hands will only transfer the bacteria onto something when you touch something. If you are experiencing flu-like symptoms, call your doctor and get a blood test to see if you have H1N1 and if you do, don't go to school or work and if you have kids, take EXTRA measures to make sure they don't get it.
That's the real deal.