GimR
GimR, Co-Founder of VGBootCamp
http://www.newscientist.com/article...u-virus-in-us-and-mexico-may-go-pandemic.html
Check out what an expert said about it:
This is NOT sensationalism. Disclaimer, I am an expert so if you want to argue details I'll take you to school. The difference between a pandemic and normal endemic/seasonal flu is the following.
Seasonal flu has a high mutation rate, it slowly ticks over mutations so that it can look just different enough to infect you again next year. It kills the very young and the very old who have weakened immune systems. This is bad, but we're working on it.
Pandemic flu is different in that there is a reassortment event of flu that makes it hyper-virulent. This occurs when 2 different species of flu (maybe pig flu + human flu, maybe avian flu +human) both infect the same cell at the same time. Because the flu is agnostic about which genes it packages up, sometimes there is a reassortment. These are usually nothing and don't even work, but sooner or later there is a magic combination that becomes hyper virulent strain. It's a numbers game as an infection tends to produce apx 10^(10-11) infectious particles per day per infected person. This strain is bad because it short circuits the immune system and causes death by over-reaction in HEALTHY young people. edit and that's what is happening in the Mexico flu (as I'm guessing we're going to call it)
It happens every 20 years or so, and is basically unstoppable once it gets going as this one has. Lethality in the 1918 flu epidemic was 2-20% depending on other things. That's not a bet I'd be willing to take and if this gets out of control, I'll be staying inside for the next little...
Go check it up flu history on wikipedia, you'll **** your pants.
So basically there's a serious strain of Flu going around in Mexico and it's gotten into the US, 80 people have died in Mexico in the last two weeks and 1,000 people are infected. This flu is dangerous because it has a 2-20% death rate on healthy young people. So be careful when your around big groups of people, I.E. smash tournies
Here's all you need to know:
http://www.who.int/csr/swine_flu/swine_flu_faq_26april.pdf
Check out what an expert said about it:
This is NOT sensationalism. Disclaimer, I am an expert so if you want to argue details I'll take you to school. The difference between a pandemic and normal endemic/seasonal flu is the following.
Seasonal flu has a high mutation rate, it slowly ticks over mutations so that it can look just different enough to infect you again next year. It kills the very young and the very old who have weakened immune systems. This is bad, but we're working on it.
Pandemic flu is different in that there is a reassortment event of flu that makes it hyper-virulent. This occurs when 2 different species of flu (maybe pig flu + human flu, maybe avian flu +human) both infect the same cell at the same time. Because the flu is agnostic about which genes it packages up, sometimes there is a reassortment. These are usually nothing and don't even work, but sooner or later there is a magic combination that becomes hyper virulent strain. It's a numbers game as an infection tends to produce apx 10^(10-11) infectious particles per day per infected person. This strain is bad because it short circuits the immune system and causes death by over-reaction in HEALTHY young people. edit and that's what is happening in the Mexico flu (as I'm guessing we're going to call it)
It happens every 20 years or so, and is basically unstoppable once it gets going as this one has. Lethality in the 1918 flu epidemic was 2-20% depending on other things. That's not a bet I'd be willing to take and if this gets out of control, I'll be staying inside for the next little...
Go check it up flu history on wikipedia, you'll **** your pants.
So basically there's a serious strain of Flu going around in Mexico and it's gotten into the US, 80 people have died in Mexico in the last two weeks and 1,000 people are infected. This flu is dangerous because it has a 2-20% death rate on healthy young people. So be careful when your around big groups of people, I.E. smash tournies
Here's all you need to know:
http://www.who.int/csr/swine_flu/swine_flu_faq_26april.pdf
