sterilized stones for the pilgrims doing Jamrah! The Saudis are taking the swine flu very seriously indeed.
Latest Updates: swine flu RSS
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aziz
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johnpi
WHO warns of severe form of swine flu.
Doctors are reporting a severe form of swine flu that goes straight to the lungs, causing severe illness in otherwise healthy young people and requiring expensive hospital treatment, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
Some countries are reporting that as many as 15 percent of patients infected with the new H1N1 pandemic virus need hospital care, further straining already overburdened healthcare systems, WHO said in an update on the pandemic.
“During the winter season in the southern hemisphere, several countries have viewed the need for intensive care as the greatest burden on health services,” it said.
“Preparedness measures need to anticipate this increased demand on intensive care units, which could be overwhelmed by a sudden surge in the number of severe cases.”
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Kawthar
3 months ago, Iran announced that the “Islamic Solidarity Games” would be cancelled after Saudi Arabia objected to the usage of Persian Gulf in medals and brochures.
Now, the Ministry of Health announced that the games will be postponed due to the outbreak of swine flu. They still found a way to blame Saudi Arabia though.
The comments come as the outbreak of the virus in Iran is blamed on travelers, especially pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia.
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plimfix
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willow
Swine flu reaches Africa, via Cairo. The disease vectors: pigs? Why no! Americans! Will be interested to see how the government plays this through. Standards of public health are not particularly high in Egypt (I know more than one person who has contracted Hep B/Hep C through hospital visits), so this will be tricky.
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aziz
Daily Kos has a fantastic diary about the rationale for closing schools to help prevent a swine flu pandemic.
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johnpi
Award-winning educational animation on the web about where meat comes from in the US in a spoof on “The Matrix” movies. Fill in the blanks in your knowledge of the issue as cases of swine flu creep ever closer to your geographic location (my daughter’s school just got a confirmed case).
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johnpi
“Swine flu” is now Politically Incorrect.
That’s right, people. It’s not just Obama refusing to call SWINE Flu by its real name – namely, SWINE Flu – but on The Takeaway this morning I actually heard the airheads transition from saying SWINE Flu to calling it the H18237FN10DSND027E – HIke! virus or something. And they even admitted they were doing that because the oh-so-tenderized sensibilities of the men who control the meat industry believe that calling SWINE Flu “SWINE Flu” is bad for business.
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johnpi
Earlier, Aziz said he was getting a lot of traffic from people doing Internet searches on “swine flu conspiracy.” Now various right-wing types have jumped on the conspiracy bandwagon: “Could this be a terrorist attack,” “what better way to sneak a virus in this country than to give it to Mexicans,” “they [Mexicans] are perfect mules for bringing this virus into America,” etc.
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aziz
disturbing: I am getting a TON of traffic from google based on the search terms “swine flu conspiracy“.
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aziz
I’m skeptical of swine flu. Of course, since I dont eat pork and haven’t been to mexico, why should I be worried?
UPDATE: I should note that I was a. kidding about the pork bit (as a vector for transmission) and b. the governments are actually doing a good job, which is why we can afford to snark about the public panic.
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razib, murtad fitri
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johnpi
Government officials are moving into emergency response mode in North America as a new mutant swine flu bug spreads by human-to-human contact in California, Texas and Mexico. 16 confirmed dead, 943 suspected of having been sickened. 6.1 million children in Mexico City stayed home today due to an emergency school closure meant to reduce the spread.
