blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2009-04-28 10:46 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2009-04-28 10:46 pm
A sane politician!
Imagine my surprise!
Nicola Roxon is the Australian Minister for Health and Ageing. She is currently being interviewed on the ABC about swine flu and Australia, and has been a voice of calm and reason.
'We have 89 suspected cases of swine flu,' said the host of the news program.
'No,' she corrected, 'we have 89 people who have been travelling in affected areas who are experiencing flu-like symptoms that warrant further investigation. Of that there are only two who we have suggested be quarantined and they are being tested.'
It's the sort of nicety you'd expect from the daughter of scientists.
The Australian government has just declared it a quarantineable disease, a measure that is usually not needed as Australians, like New Zealanders, are generally very good about public health. It's the third major epidemic threatening the region in the last decade, after SARS and Bird Flu. First likely flu pandemic since I was a toddler, though.
I await the lunacy that will be flooding the internet over the next few weeks. And can I just warn that I will thoroughly ridicule any member of my flist who rants about why weren't vaccines ready and why aren't people being given antibiotics. (I will happily explain why both of these comments are stupid for people who just don't know, wanting knowledge is to be encouraged and there is no reason why you should be interested in the epidemiology of influenza!).
In a moment of irony-like coincidence, I have a mild case of normal influenza picked up in the week before I was booked in for my flu shot. Bloody typical. At least it is one of the feebler strains, I think those are all B this year. Stupid fast-mutating viruses!
Nicola Roxon is the Australian Minister for Health and Ageing. She is currently being interviewed on the ABC about swine flu and Australia, and has been a voice of calm and reason.
'We have 89 suspected cases of swine flu,' said the host of the news program.
'No,' she corrected, 'we have 89 people who have been travelling in affected areas who are experiencing flu-like symptoms that warrant further investigation. Of that there are only two who we have suggested be quarantined and they are being tested.'
It's the sort of nicety you'd expect from the daughter of scientists.
The Australian government has just declared it a quarantineable disease, a measure that is usually not needed as Australians, like New Zealanders, are generally very good about public health. It's the third major epidemic threatening the region in the last decade, after SARS and Bird Flu. First likely flu pandemic since I was a toddler, though.
I await the lunacy that will be flooding the internet over the next few weeks. And can I just warn that I will thoroughly ridicule any member of my flist who rants about why weren't vaccines ready and why aren't people being given antibiotics. (I will happily explain why both of these comments are stupid for people who just don't know, wanting knowledge is to be encouraged and there is no reason why you should be interested in the epidemiology of influenza!).
In a moment of irony-like coincidence, I have a mild case of normal influenza picked up in the week before I was booked in for my flu shot. Bloody typical. At least it is one of the feebler strains, I think those are all B this year. Stupid fast-mutating viruses!
no subject
I used to avoid them, but having had three bad cases of flu in the last three years, I have accepted that I sleep too little and travel too much and therefore should grab the vaccine.
The problem with immune systems and influenza is that exposure to one strain is no use against another, and so you can have several consecutive bouts of different flus. The vaccine is a combination of the strains most likely to be around that year. Alas, when new ones develop out of nowhere, like this, you have to start again from scratch vaccine-wise.
Interestingly, there is new research into a vaccine that looks as though it will deal with some of the basic ways the flu virus works, rather than the virus itself, so it might be able to work against multiple flus. Alas, still on the drawing board.