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Comment by inerte | Hacker News Reader

I am saying to friends that the swine flu is like the normal one, you have fever, headaches, sore throat, but one week later, you die.

And it's plausible description: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/parents.htm

What I don't know is if the swine flu has stronger symptoms. For example, more headache than you normally had with flu, or coughing more, etc... To me, so far from what I've read, you have a flu, then you're dead. Wish I knew if there was a couple things to look for, that would really raise the alarm.

But if the influenza really spreads, like dozens of people here in São Paulo are diagnosed, one sneeze and off I go to the hospital.

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How did you manage to translate "Although rare, severe respiratory illness (pneumonia) and deaths have been reported with flu infections in children" to such a broad, absolute statement like "you have fever, headaches, sore throat, but one week later, you die."

Did you even read the page you linked to?

The issue with the H1N1 virus is that it has been for the most part out of action for the majority of the population and therefore have a generation of people with no resistance to the virus at all. The typical versions of the influenza that has been going around (usually the antigens are in the the flu shots) have similar proteins that we have some level of defense to, but when we encounter (in this case) a new virus that we have no defense, our bodies just go way overboard on the defense response and if not properly treated - basically die of asphyxiation.

EVERY single person who gets the flu (any and every flu) at some point in his life gets one they have no resistance/immunity to!

There is nothing magical about this one, it's not more infectious, it's doesn't kill more people (at least in the US).

It's just a regular flu.

Except that normally only a small number of people get sick, and this time a large number of people will get sick.

But the individual sicknesses are going to be regular flu.

It could mutate to a version that kills (your overboard on defense theory), but right now it's not, and every flu can mutate to a version that kills.

The best case scenario is it goes global now, before it has a chance to mutate. Or that it waits till an immunization is available.

And since in my opinion it's not going to mutate to a killer version before we manage to make a vaccine (4-6 months) this is going to turn out to be a big nothing!

"EVERY single person who gets the flu (any and every flu) at some point in his life gets one they have no resistance/immunity to!"

But thatericguy's point still stands, if he was talking about there being no herd immunity and the crucial difference that makes in the disease's potential to spread

It has potential to spread, yes - but once spread it is no different than any other flu. Unlike the GP post of "you get it you are dead".

It doesn't matter that no one has been exposed to it before - people will get sick, sure. But that happens all the time that someone gets sick from a flu that for them is new.

It is only the spreading potential that is a problem, as a disease it is the same as regular flu once you get it.

the H1N1 virus... [has been] out of action for the majority of the population and therefore have a generation of people with no resistance to the virus at all

Actually, an H1N1 virus was included in the 2008/2009 FDA-approved seasonal flu vaccination formula:

http://www.fda.gov/cber/flu/flu2008.htm

As of March, the 2008-2009 flu season was considered especially mild, perhaps because "this year's flu shot closely matched the strains of flu virus prevalent in the general population". See:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-flu14-2009mar14,0,58...

So it's not like an H1N1 virus is all-new; it's just this mexico-originated '09 flu that's new. (And that's why "H1N1" alone is a poor name for the new '09 flu virus, as bad in a different way than "swine flu".)

Lemme fix that for you:

"I am saying to friends that the swine flu is like the normal one, you have fever, headaches, sore throat, but one week later, you die (less than 2% of the time)"

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