By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - General - New H7N9 virus could pose global threat

Baalzamon on 14 April 2013
JEMC said:
curl-6 said:
JEMC said:

I also hope that it is a one of those cases where it looks worse than it actually is.

The thing is, besides the pig flu that happened in America (I think), all of these rare flus have happened in China, where pollution and selling infected food are known problems. I don't know if those things as well as the possibility of using drugs on the animals are factors that are making these ills stronger/worse than they should be, it's the population that is weaker or (more probably) both things making it look worse.

In China, and otehr East Asian countries, large populations of humans, birds, and pigs live in close contact with each other. This facilitates both the transfer of bird viruses to people, but the mixing of bird and human strains in pigs, which can result in a mutant hybrid combining the high lethality of an avian flu with the high transmissibility of human flu.

The same happened in Europe 300/400 years ago and there was no flu... we had plague(s), but no flu.

In any case, these cases are still far from being the next Spanish flu, otherwise we would be already ill and maybe death. Worringly enough, the Spanish flu (also from the H1N1 variant) may also started with birds and pigs, and in China...

You are trying to compare the mortality of the Spanish Flu with the H1N9? Because medicine is exponentially better now. If a virus kills 10-20% of a specific population today, I'd be inclined to beieve it would have wiped out far more than that back in the day.



Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.

Around the Network
JEMC on 14 April 2013
Baalzamon said:
JEMC said:
curl-6 said:
JEMC said:

I also hope that it is a one of those cases where it looks worse than it actually is.

The thing is, besides the pig flu that happened in America (I think), all of these rare flus have happened in China, where pollution and selling infected food are known problems. I don't know if those things as well as the possibility of using drugs on the animals are factors that are making these ills stronger/worse than they should be, it's the population that is weaker or (more probably) both things making it look worse.

In China, and otehr East Asian countries, large populations of humans, birds, and pigs live in close contact with each other. This facilitates both the transfer of bird viruses to people, but the mixing of bird and human strains in pigs, which can result in a mutant hybrid combining the high lethality of an avian flu with the high transmissibility of human flu.

The same happened in Europe 300/400 years ago and there was no flu... we had plague(s), but no flu.

In any case, these cases are still far from being the next Spanish flu, otherwise we would be already ill and maybe death. Worringly enough, the Spanish flu (also from the H1N1 variant) may also started with birds and pigs, and in China...

You are trying to compare the mortality of the Spanish Flu with the H1N9? Because medicine is exponentially better now. If a virus kills 10-20% of a specific population today, I'd be inclined to beieve it would have wiped out far more than that back in the day.

I'm not comparing its mortality rate, I'm just saying that these new flus come from pigs and birds like some believe happened with the Spanish Flu.

And yes, medicine is far better now, but it's also true that the misuse/abuse of certain medicines has made some virus a lot harder to kill.



Please excuse my bad English.

Former gaming PC: i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Current gaming PC: R5-7600, 32GB RAM 6000MT/s (CL30) and a RX 9060XT 16GB

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

NintendoPie on 14 April 2013

I wonder if this'll end up being like the Swine Flu... nothing.



Damagon on 14 April 2013

There were a hell of a lot more cases of H1N1 than reported, particularly in the US. The thing is the vast majority of the infected showed no signs of infection or had symtoms so minor that they didn't believe it was the Swine flu and wouldn't go to the doctor. And even those who did go to the doctor simply got better after a week or so.

Only those with a weak immune system or with other infections/conditions are the ones that need to worry. And I have no doubt in my mind this is what's happening again.

The 'regular' flu kills more each year and no one panics over it.



curl-6 on 14 April 2013
Damagon said:
There were a hell of a lot more cases of H1N1 than reported, particularly in the US. The thing is the vast majority of the infected showed no signs of infection or had symtoms so minor that they didn't believe it was the Swine flu and wouldn't go to the doctor. And even those who did go to the doctor simply got better after a week or so.

Only those with a weak immune system or with other infections/conditions are the ones that need to worry. And I have no doubt in my mind this is what's happening again.

The 'regular' flu kills more each year and no one panics over it.

Well, people tend not to panic over something that happens every year.

And they shouldn't panic here either; panic never does any good.



Around the Network
Trunkin on 14 April 2013

The flu isn't such a big deal, is it? I don't think I've ever even been to the hospital, or taken a vaccine for it, and I'm still alive and kicking.



Roma on 14 April 2013

oh another flue -_-



    R.I.P Mr Iwata :'(

curl-6 on 19 April 2013

Up to 91 cases and 17 deaths, which at least means the mortality rate has fallen from 1 in 4 to 1 in 5.

However, there's now concerns that many of the sick had to clear contact with poultry:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2013/04/19/h7n9-bird-flu-cases-in-rise-by-four-to-91-half-have-no-poultry-contact/