Fresh air. How are you all handling the Swine Influenza scare we have been having?
Japan has been in the throes of trying to keep contagion away but I think it is a losing battle. As of last night's news, there were 303 reported cases of Swine flu in Japan. Daily the TV and newspapers tell us to stay at home, wash hands for more than 15 seconds at a time, avoid crowds, wear masks and NOT go to the doctor in case of a fever. More and more people are using a grocery delivery service rather than risk going shopping and in the infected areas schools and kindergartens are shutting down for the duration (which means mothers can't go to work!)
Even with all these precautions the virus got through the barriers and has spread into the central prefectures and this has affected tourism and life in general in that part of the country. Hotels and businesses report that some of the popular tourist sights look like ghost towns these days. Japanese jr. high and high school students go to Kyoto and Nara by the tens of thousands every year and school trips have been scheduled for years in advance so to cancel out now is a loss for everyone concerned. Nevertheless some schools are cancelling their trips and some are taking other health precautions.
Yesterday the news showed students on their school trip in Kyoto and they had been forbidden to get out of their taxi! The taxi driver just drove 4 students around in his taxi all day, showed them the sights from the car window, bought them hamburgers at Mac Donald's and did their souvenir shopping for them while the kids waited in the taxi! What kind of a school trip is that?! Seems to miss the point of learning about the culture of Japan! (Granted the four girls interviewed seemed to be having a great time in the taxi.) Picture from the InternetWell, so far the virus hasn't come this far north but it is only a matter of time. I no longer know what it sensible and what is obsessive. Very often in Japan, the news reports an exaggerated view of things and I find out later that the rest of the world isn't going to the same extremes. For example years ago with the SARS outbreak, Japan went nuts and people weren't travelling, weren't going to stores etc. But my family in America reported that at least in California it was barely making the news.
With Swine flu I'm wondering if it is much the same. All the stores, even in my area, are completely sold out of masks. Even the hospitals report that they don't have enough masks for their doctors and nurses! Well, I've never been able to get used to wearing a mask anyway, and only when I am feverish and coughing will I resort to one just to sit in the doctor's waiting room. (I never know if I am protecting myself from other people's germs or if I'm protecting them from mine.) If I could FIND a mask should I wear it because the rest of Japan is wearing masks? Is a mask really a shield against all those tiny influenza viruses? Picture from the Internet
I pulled out a mask that my friend who had lived in Taiwan had given me. I think these types of masks are used by people who travel around on their motorcycles along the dusty streets of Taiwan. Hmm. Talk about extremes! I could hold up a bank wearing this! So I tried sewing a smaller version.I hope I don't have to use these. I either feel like a bank robber or an escaped mad scientist. At least I don't have to wear lipstick.
And for all the levity, I am praying for those people where the situation may be serious.
How about you? Has Swine flu affected your life very much these past couple months?
17 comments:
It hasn't affected our family at all, although schools did close a couple of weeks ago due to a few sick students. I think it's overkill, myself. I know there were deaths in Mexico, but they also don't have access to the health care that we do. It seems to be affecting younger folks - in their 20's - because they haven't had flu as much as the older ones, and don't have the resistance to it.
It's VERY mild here in the U.S. Personally, I would stock up on colloidal silver, eat properly and get enough rest to keep your immune system up.
The masks that you show are only good for a couple of hours, if that. They get saturated and stop working. You need to change them frequently. So wearing one to the doctor's office is good, but not all day.
Stay well, Tanya!
The news media hyped it here in the US too. A flash in the pan. Haven't heard much about it for a while now. If a person is healthy to start with, gets their rest, eats well and take their vitamins & such I really don't think they have much to worry about. After all, in the US, regular flu & its complications kill more than 30,000 people every year....why isn't that news? Those of us in our 40s, 50s & 60s who have had about every kind of flu there is probably have the least to worry about because we've built up immunities.
I thought of you when I read this article the other day http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/world/asia/22japan.html.
"The outbreak has come as a particular shock for hygiene-obsessed Japan, where hand-washing is religiously taught in schools, children play in sanitized sandboxes, and everything from underwear to ballpoint pens comes with supposed antibacterial properties.... Japan is also known for its paranoia of foreign diseases."
The article also mentions SARS. What do you think? Does the article capture the Japanese response? Or does it exaggerate the exaggerated response? :)
Stay well!
We had a little hype in the media in the UK which paled into insignificance once the scandal of the MPs expenses hit the papers. I think that the media are very guilt of whipping up hysteria. There is talk of the virus raising its head again in the autumn as the weather chills again - I shall watch my three like a hawk as I understand young people without previous immunity are most at risk - time will tell
my sense is you need to worry about as much as getting a regular flu. What's special about this one is no one has a natural immunity to it as it's a new genetic mixture for humans, but so far the infection rates and mortaility rates are not significantly different from the yearly flu strains -- yes it could be "worse" since no one has a natural immunity, so if you're exposed you'r body's chances of fighting it off without you knowing about it are low, but otherwise from the science I've read so far don't panic...
Here, in Hungary , we only hear about this flu in the media...
I know God will protect you from this flu, but I'm sorry to hear what's happenning in Japan.
In midwest U.S., I'm not even hearing anyone talking about it. Am I in the dark? A few cases have been mentioned in the newspaper, and several deaths, but those were people who had already compromised immune systems due to other illnesses. As for me, I'm washing my hands more often, but rarely even think of it.
My own mother taught us "a little dirt is good for you" - obviously meaning one shoule build up one's own immune system. (she's 94!)
And, for those who really want to worry, more deaths are caused every year by hospitals (or is it Physicians?) than people like to hear. The number is astounding, yet we don't hear any panic about that! Visiting a hospital frankly, scares ME a LOT more!
The media has hyped up the swine flu epidemic. There are about 5-6 people in the city who have confirmed cases. The general population though just makes fun. One person came into work with the flu and we all warned him to stay away from us because we didn't want swine flu. We take the normal precautions of hand washing, staying a distance away from sick people, etc., but I doubt the masks really keep out viruses anyway.
In both Michigan and Pennsylvania, where I am currently visiting my DD1 and family, people are pretty much back to normal. More places have hand sanitizer available but no big problem in schools. They are mostly saying to only close schools if so many are sick it doesn't do any good to keep them open. This is the same as usual. It will be interesting to see what happens in the fall -if it changes into a more severe virus.
Nobody is talking about Swine Flu in Tennessee either and it really hasn't made a big change in my behavior. I have to admit I did worry a little about germs when I had to go to the doctor's office yesterday (muscle spasms in my neck - not fun!). Since I have a history of bronchitis and pneumonia developing from colds and flu, I have been scrupulously using hand sanitizer wherever I go (after I leave stores, etc) and trying to be more careful about exposure to any kind of germ for several years now, and it's working well. It makes me feel a little obsessive-compulsive, but we haven't even had a cold for years!
Having said that, I do think you can get a little crazy about sanitizing everything, especially if you are are young and have a robust immune system. I agree completely with Elaine. The expression I heard growing up was "You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die", meaning that complete cleanliness is impossible and a little dirt won't kill you. And it's true that the more things your immune system is exposed to in your youth, the stronger and more diversified it gets.
And I'm scared of going to hospitals too! My sister-in-law spent a week hanging around the hospital last fall when her mother-in-law was ill, and the whole family came down with some bug that made them sick as a dog.
Anne summed up the situation here in the UK perfectly. I'm not so concerned at the moment, but rather in the fall when we close up our homes, turn on the heating and breed bacteria. I work in a school and it does concern me as the school always seems to have the heating on full blast....I'm always opening windows at work :o)
Anne is right about the UK - most people who have got it seem to think that it's no worse than a cold or mild flu. Some schools have closed where there has been a confirmed case, but there's very little being said about it, and I can't imagine seeing anyone in the UK wearing a mask at any time. The media just seem to need something to get hysterical about, and here it's currently MP's expenses rather than swine flu.
I think, at first, here in Australia, we tended to laugh off the Swine Flu scare, but suddenly it seems there are real cases out there, & people have begun to feel the reality. I still don't think anyone is panicking, but today at the Chemist, I noticed masks for sale at 25c each, or 5 for $1. Like you, I rather question their efficiency.
In Canada there is hardly any mention of it anymore.
My husband's workplace had some meetings earlier in the month about pandemic planning, but I noticed in today's paper the swine flu is not even mentioned.
There are a lot of posters around town about handwashing and at the hospital where I work there are big posters about reporting specific symptoms and wearing a mask on arrival.
It doesn't seem to be in the news as much right now but I checked the CDC website and there have been almost 8,000 cases and 11 deaths so far in the US. I'd read somewhere that the incidence may decrease in the summer and then have a resurgence in the fall.
I was surprised to read that the elderly (over 64) seem to have some immunity to this flu.
Hello,
I just discovered your blog and I really like it! I lived in Japan (Tokyo) from 1982 to 1985 and loved it! I was 13 years but I remember everyhting (also the language and some kanjis;).
Re. the swine flu, I'm living in Europe (Belgium) and we heard a LOT about it at the beginning (Mexican cases), then nothing, then again because we had two cases in Belgium and then again nothing except that there were strangely of lot of cases in Japan!
We are not wearing masks but in my company (which is an international company) we have little posters hanging in all restrooms explaining how to wash one's hand.
Otherwise the governement has assured us that we have sufficient vaccinations and sufficient masks in the case we should encounter a pandemic.
Of course, we speek about it and we all hope we will soon get rid of it...
As Allie said, I would "eat properly and get enough rest to keep your immune system up" and avoid crowd as much as possible.
Take care!
Unfortunately 1 case in my neighbourhood + 1 case in Brussels since yesterday...
Post a Comment