We have a child in quarantine. Several scouts in our troop have come down with Type A flu. Type A flu is not necessarily H1N1 but likely to be. More details after I finish my programming. This has caused great soap opera quality drama. Cathy will likely post information before me at either Domestic Psychology or on Twitter here.
Tag: flu
Boy Scout Camp Ends Early
Two of the scouts in our troop fell ill. In swine-flu paranoia, our troop was quarantined and are being sent home early. Instead of taking the two sick children to the local hospital for confirmation of the nature of the illness, the camp isolated them in the health lodge and confirmed our scouts to their camp. I do not know if today’s activities were canceled. I suspect that Noah only gets 1 out of 3 days actually riding a horse, an activity he paid extra for participation. I feel Noah was cheated. Not over the horse but for potentially losing all of today’s activities, for being separated from the rest of the camp unable to dine in the mess hall or participate in the week’s ending ceremonies, for losing all of tomorrow’s activities, and for losing Saturday’s morning. I understand risk management. I understand the need to prevent a flu outbreak. I also understand the importance of living our lives in a non-reactionary, logical way. My initial feelings are this was handled wrongly. I’ll learn more tomorrow.
There is reason for the paranoia. The WHO has declared that the H1N1 virus is "unstoppable" and that every country needs to vaccinate its citizens against the swine flu. Interestingly enough, the WHO is no longer counting individual cases. Anyone need a mask
Update 17 July 2009: The quarantine has been lifted. The temperatures on the two sick children came down which is not typical of h1n1. Those boys went home last night and this morning no one else showed any symptoms. Good call CDB!
The Swine Flu Source Caught on Film
seen at http://imgur.com/27K39.jpg
New Swine Flu Cases
A visual inspection of the swine flu map reveals that last night another suspected case was added to North Carolina (closer to the TN border! Here it comes), 6 suspected cases were added to South Carolina, 5 confirmed cases were added to New Jersey (a neighbor is traveling in NJ right now…will he bring it to TN?). Michigan adds a suspected case along with its confirmed case.
Just for the count, New York City has 7 suspected cases and 7 confirmed.
Swine Flu Cases in North Carolina
According to the H1N1 Swine Flu Map, 4 suspected cases of swine flu have come to North Carolina. That’s a little too close to home. I cannot tell what is happening up in New York City; just too many cases to determine if more have been added just by looking at the map. Same with Austin/San Antonio. Two confirmed cases have definitely been added to Sacramento. I haven’t been watching the rest of the world to tell what is happening beyond the borders.
New Swine Flu Cases
According to the Swine Flu map, Michigan has a confirmed case. It has also moved to northern California.
xkcd Sums Up Swine Flu on Twitter
Losing My Google-fu
Yesterday Cathy had the great idea to post the Human H1N1 Swine Flu Map. (there are dozens but this one in particular by a person nicknamed Niman is particularly excellent) I followed her lead and also posted the map because I assume that Domestic Psychology and Reality Me have slightly different audiences albeit with some natural overlap. Her post stayed off the radar and mine jumped to the number one position in Google’s search results, Dogpile’s search results and CNN’s search results for the keywords "swine flu map" which was pretty cool. The post even hit digg (a first for me). The Internet is a fickle place. At the time I began composing this post, I was in 4th position on Google and not even on page 1 for CNN or Dogpile. By the time I finished typing this I was in 5th position on Google. The programmer in me wants to jump over to Cathy’s site and figure out why mine seems to have SEO’d well and hers didn’t. The marketer in me is kicking me for not having redesigned the appearance of Reality Me yet to make it more inviting for visitors to want to continue reading. The bounce rate on this moment of fame was incredibly high. Basically, the landing page gave the visitor no reason to stay on the site. That will have to be fixed…in June. Never judge a web developer by his own site. My time needs to be spent on my clients’ sites. Now back to work!
The spread of swine flu
According to the map, while we slept Sacramento and Dallas picked up a couple of suspected cases, and Indiana picked up two confirmed cases of the swine flu. Hard to tell but looks like more activity in New York City, San Antonio, and the San Diego/Los Angeles area.
H1N1 Swine Flu Map
UPDATE! The maps are now being updated at http://flutracker.rhizalabs.com/ and the embedded maps below are no longer being updated.
Remember, wash your hands frequently. Avoid public places until this passes. What will you buy in preparation for the swine flu? Be sure to follow djuggler on Twitter.
View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map
View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map
Map Legend: Pink markers are suspected cases, Purple markers are confirmed cases, if there is no black dot someone has died, yellow markers indicate tests came back negative. Map created by Niman of Biomedical Research in Pittsburgh, PA USA.
See also: HealthMap – Global disease alert map. Mashable explains how to track swine flu online.
Update: US declares public health emergency for swine flu
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes. [Source, CourierPress/Associated Press]
Update: U.S. prepares for possible swine flu epidemic as global cases rise
(CNN) — The United States stepped up preparations for a possible swine flu epidemic, and Canada confirmed its first cases on Sunday as researchers worked to determine how contagious the virus could be. [Source, CNN Health]
Update: Swine flu: Twitter’s power to misinform
Update: Another map which actually shows the number for each area affected. The data is by The Guardian and looks to be lagging behind Niman who just really seems to be on top of it.
Update 27Apr2009: Swine Flu in Mexico Linked to Poorly Managed Factory Farms
Investigations now reveal that the swine flu epidemic that began in Mexico and spread worldwide is probably connected to pollution caused by unsanitary pig breeding farms in the region. [Source, ecoworldly, Swine Flu in Mexico Linked to Poorly Managed Factory Farms]
Update 28APR2009: Swine flu creates controversy on Twitter (I don’t agree with the tone of this article. To me it sounds like John D. Sutter doesn’t get Twitter.)
CNN has a map!
The World Health Organization on Monday raised its pandemic alert … from level three to level four on the WHO’s six-level threat scale means the world body has determined the virus is capable of significant human-to-human transmission — a major step toward a flu pandemic [Source, CNN, WHO raises pandemic alert level; more swine flu cases feared]
Update: Obama Seeks to Ease Fears on Swine Flu – "the president said there was ‘not a cause for alarm.’"
Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events
The dirty farm in Mexico which is the apparent source of the flu is 50% owned by American company Smithfield.
Update: Sebastian blogs from Mexico.
Update: Interesting sickness tracker based upon Twitter references: Knoxville, Nashville, and USA. Thanks to Michael Silence and Ben Cunningham of Taxing TN for the link.
New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden reports many hundreds of school children sick with suspected cases of Swine Flu.
Update: Cuba closes borders to travel from Mexico. Swine Flu
Update: First person in Mexico with Swine Flu identified.
