First of all, I’m going to keep calling it swine flu and not A/H1N1. I have no need to be politically correct against pigs, or their farmers (of which I have some in my family – the pig farmers, not the pigs)
I just wanted to peek out and see if anyone else is watching the growth of swine flu? I stopped looking for a couple of days because, honestly, I’m a little bored with the story. But today I checked WHO, CDC, and my Wisconsin flu tracker site and saw the explosive growth. Wow! I realize that it is likely due to increased detection and not necessarily due to spread of the virus, but it’s still an amazing thing to watch this diseases grow. I’ve never paid attention to an epidemic or pandemic before. I don’t know whether it speaks to the virulence of this strain, or the effectiveness of our health care and detection methods but this is no linear growth we’re talking about. (CDC has given test kits to states so there is more and faster testing. They expect this to increase the number of confirmed cases, but it doesn’t mean more people are sick, just more people confirmed.)
The World Health Organization (WHO) is adding another country to the list of confirmed cases just about every day. The WHO report today shows 23 countries have officially reported 2099 cases. In Wisconsin we had ZERO confirmed cases less than a week ago and a couple of probable cases awaiting test results. Today, less than 1 week later, there are 26 confirmed and 176 probable cases in my state, including one suspected case in my country. Have you checked the swine flu tracker map lately? Many more dots than there were 2 weeks ago. I found this graph which shows the exponential growth of swine flu in the USA (which is expected of any virus when there is no vacinated population):
I’m still not in a panic, even though I do have fears since I have a child in junior high. And I won’t pontificate on the flu or it’s spread. I just wanted to say Wow about how the number are increasing and marvel about the math. And finally, my heart goes out to the people who are coming down with this flu or any other influenza. Being sick like that sucks. There are faces behind every one of those numbers. Wish them all a speedy recovery and tamiflu for all.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Pig farmers, in your family, really?
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:42 pm
I’ve been blessed by a smart-ass sister who has called me out on the internet. Consider myself smacked! And the pig-farmers are in YOUR family. So I guess I should say they are in my family’s family? And I’m sure I lost everybody in that which is why I didn’t go to that depth before.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
So glad you’re reading, and the Rowenta is worth it if you iron much. More tape making today, and I’m looking forward to it.
Patchwork huh? I would love to see pictures.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:28 am
You have a smart-ass sister? Who knew?
I knew exactly who you were talking about. Vic has done the pig thing, so technically you do have pig farmers in your family. Pictures of patchwork and other sewing will be forthcoming on Flickr. I found a wonderful shopping bag pattern. Remember a while back I directed you to Alicia Paulson’s blog Posie gets Cozy? She has a great pattern for the Jane Market Bag. I have enough fabric so I might as well save the trees and make a few market bags. And believe it or not my local grocery store, United, still offers paper sacks.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:19 am
the spread of AH1N1 or Swine Flu is really scary. It is a good thing that this virus is not very deadly. We are advised to take Vitamin-C and to wear face masks.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:37 am
the use of face masks and boosting your immune system by taking lots of vitamin-C is still an effective way of preventing the spread of the Swine Flu virus.
July 18th, 2009 at 2:28 am
i always advice my kids to wear face masks when going into crowded areas. swine flu is really scary and i dont want my kids getting infected by it.
July 24th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I have a relative who got the Swine Flu in Mexico. It is a good thing that he already recovered from this disease.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:04 am
how developed the this tipe of epedemic
September 7th, 2009 at 10:42 am
the H1N1 or Swine Flu Virus is very scary at first but now it is well controlled by vaccines and prevention by avoiding going into places with incidence of swine flu.