H1N1, would you take the vaccine??

[superboy]

Got it a week ago. Umm..., feel fine so far

[flamer]

Thanks for letting me know Flamer! WOW, you went through a lot... They did not just randomly stop people right? Did you appear sick? Did you go to Beijing/Singapore for work or just for vacation?? Glad that you are ok now.

Haha it was definitely an interesting experience. Singapore airport was equipped with some kind of temperature scanning equipment, scanning every incoming passengers coming down the escalators. But when I was in quarantine, I heard Singapore gave up in trying to stop incoming cases so the scanning stopped. I was on vacation. I'm lucky I didn't get a bad case of H1N1. People do die from this .

[Trinie]

Haha it was definitely an interesting experience. Singapore airport was equipped with some kind of temperature scanning equipment, scanning every incoming passengers coming down the escalators. But when I was in quarantine, I heard Singapore gave up in trying to stop incoming cases so the scanning stopped. I was on vacation. I'm lucky I didn't get a bad case of H1N1. People do die from this .

THanks again for sharing your experience! I hope that you still managed to enjoy your vacation after all that.... I think the symptoms and seriousness of each case varies from person to person since most people do recover while some people die from it unfortunately. Why did Singapore stop scanning people who may have had H1N1??

[Lady Zhuge]

I took Tamiflu for 10 days after being exposed to a co-worker who tested positive for swine flu (probably got it from a patient while rounding up in the ICU). That was not a very pleasant experience. When our hospital finally received a supply of the H1N1 vaccine, I decided to get it along with just about everyone else in our department. It sure beats taking more courses of Tamiflu and was less painful than the seasonal flu vaccine.

H1N1 Vaccine as Safe as Seasonal Vaccine, WHO Says

November 19, 2009 — The H1N1 2009 pandemic influenza vaccine appears to be as safe as the seasonal flu vaccine, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

About 1 adverse event is being reported for every 10,000 doses, said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the WHO's Initiative for Vaccine Research, at a virtual press briefing today. Of those adverse event reports, about 5 of 100 are considered serious.

According to Dr. Kieny, serious adverse events so far include 30 deaths and about 12 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome; however, she emphasized that none of the deaths reported to date has been confirmed as being caused by the vaccine. In addition, all cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome have been transient, and only a few have been linked to the vaccine.

Dr. Kieny added that there appears to be no difference between the safety profile of the seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines, and the number of adverse events is comparable between the 2 vaccines. In addition, the safety profiles of the different forms of pandemic vaccine are also similar.

Adverse reactions associated with the pandemic vaccine include a variety of local reactions including "pain at injection site, swelling, redness, and reactions such as fever, headache, muscle pain, or fatigue," Dr. Kieny said. "These generally resolve within 1 or 2 days."

"No new safety issues have been identified from reports received to date," she said.

At least 80 million doses of vaccines have been distributed and 65 million doses have been administered. "These are figures that we have received from 16 countries, but we think they are conservative estimates because immunization campaigns are under way now in 40 countries," Dr. Kieny added.

The WHO expects to start shipment of the vaccine to developing countries at the end of this month. According to Dr. Kieny, this represents a slight delay, but they expect that all vaccine doses will reach 95 eligible countries during the next 3 months.

Source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...e&uac=106227HR

[flamer]

THanks again for sharing your experience! I hope that you still managed to enjoy your vacation after all that.... I think the symptoms and seriousness of each case varies from person to person since most people do recover while some people die from it unfortunately. Why did Singapore stop scanning people who may have had H1N1??

I did enjoy my vacation, probably helped by knowing I already had H1N1 .

Singapore (as with many other countries) stopped trying to control incoming infections as they got too numerous and quarantining every single one is getting unrealistic. Focus was shifted to controlling and treating community infections.

[Trinie]

I did enjoy my vacation, probably helped by knowing I already had H1N1 .

Singapore (as with many other countries) stopped trying to control incoming infections as they got too numerous and quarantining every single one is getting unrealistic. Focus was shifted to controlling and treating community infections.

Glad to hear that you did enjoy your vacation anyways. I hope that this H1N1 gets under control and will not hurt anymore people or take anymore lives....

[Banh Mi]

Swine flu is stupid.
Regular flu kills anywhere from 250,000 - 500,000 people a year around the globe, like 34, 000 in the U.S yearly.

Swine flu killed a pathetic amount of 7,000 people so far.

Really, wake me up when something on the scale of the Black Death comes around again.