Ot: Handling Swing Flu

Q: "The New Zealand foreign ministry has issued a travel health notice for swine flu in Mexico, California and Texas, and said anyone who has recently travelled to these areas and developed flu-like symptoms should seek immediate medical attention." No doubt we'll get similar advice here in Australia before long. What form is this immediate seeking of medical attention supposed to take? A good many people would visit their GP. The rest would visit a hospital. Either way, if they're infected, and at the infectious stage, then they're spreading the illness to others who presumably have their own health issues. Given the limits on what the medical profession can do for viral infections, I'd have thought the best advise would be to stay at home, unless you are becoming seriously ill, in which case call an ambulance, and suggest that you should be kept away from other patients. In Mexico it appears most people presenting for testing are being sent away unless they display symptoms that require management. Such people may not have had Swine flu when they arrived, but could well have it by the time they leave. Tomorrow, I think I'll stock up on long lasting food and buy a few large water containers (if things get bad, the water supply may fail due to insufficient staff to operate either its infrastructure, or the power infrastructure, but there's no point in buying bottled water). If the pandemic doesn't eventuate, then the food will get eaten eventually, and the water containers are available for the next disaster.

A: Overtures of Stephen King's "The Stand" lol. It seems to be like most strains of influenza in that it has nowhere near a 100% fatality rate (thank heavens). Of 1,100 people infected in Mexico 81 have died. I would think that the deaths were people who were elderly, immune suppressed etc. The cases in the US (at least at this stage are being termed "mild"). The hospital where I work (Tasmania) has had copies of the Tasmanian Gvt Media Release posted everywhere for staff. Basically it's if you've got flu symptoms AND have travelled to the US or Mexico then contact the Public Health Dept on, you guessed it a 1800 number LOL. And a few metres of plastic tubing. If the mains water fails, the hot water tank will still be full of water (250L in my case), which could be siphoned out after undoing the hotwater outlet. So, no 4x5,000 litre tanks piped into the house pump powered by the generator in the shed if needed ? Full now after the rains in Adelaide. Grey water goes into 2x250 litre tanks, another pump for watering. No solar/wind freaking power, I still hate the acid smell from the battery shed when it was my job to maintain the windmill charged set as a kid. Modern storage batteries aren't that much better than 1970 batteries. Though I do think assuming the stand is coming is pretty much a waste of effort, enough dead to downgrade lifestyle support will mean many less to support. If it get that far down to basic you are screwed in too many and unexpected ways to prepare for most. Just do what people have always done,muddle through, it is an undervalued skill in the modern world. My minor superpowers are making things limp along for another few days that have no right to be working at all , setting domestic timers, and opening supermarket plastic bags

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