We've been seeing tons of it at the ER where I moonlight. Last week at triage I cared for 10-15 that I suspected had swine flu. The vast majority of those people have cold symptoms: cough, runny nose, fever, chills, etc... But, every now and then, it strikes like lightning and a young person has an overwhelming immune response to the disease and their lungs fill up and they crap out.

I saw a person die of swine flu last week. Right after that, I discharged 3 people with swine flu symptoms. It's a strange little disease. Get the vaccine if you can, and at very least get the regular flu vaccine. It may give you a partial immunity. The more people in the herd we can get immunized, the better off everyone is going to be. I don't get to worried about it, though.

There's always a worry about a recurrence of the "pandemic flu of 1918", and the H1N1 outbreak meets the definitions of pandemic. But, when the media talks about the pandemic of 1918, they forget the medicine has changed just a little bit in the last 90 years. For instance:

-Oxygen wasn't really in regular use until the 1920's-30's. -Germ theory had only gotten widespread acceptance for 20-30 years. -Antibiotics weren't mass produced until Sulfa in 1936. Before then, a lot of people died that could have been cured with a shot of penicillin or sulfa. -IV medications were given with glass syringes and recycled needles until the 70's.

I'm sure a large percentage of the 50 million people that died in the 1918 pandemic would have lived with basic modern medical care.