‘Face maks Japan’
courtesy of ‘shibuya246’
But don’t count on face-masks to save you from the dirty swine flu apoco-demic. The CDC reported this week that they don’t know how useful the masks are at protecting you from a disease that has killed only one individual so far in the United States — that being a toddler in Texas (you know, that state that shares a border with Mexico?). Better methods of staying healthy, says the CDC, are washing your hands and avoiding large crowds. The majority of known U.S. cases of the disease are in New York City. No cases have been confirmed in Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia (though we have seen people wearing face-masks here…). Only 5 people in the United States have had cases worrisome enough to warrant hospitalization.
While this is not to say the disease couldn’t continue to spread, it might be time to keep the panic in check for now.
There was an interesting article in Slate about why the numbers from Mexico are so much more dire than the numbers in the US. http://www.slate.com/id/2217019/
Any flu is nothing to mess around with. Influenza can and does kill people with weakened immune systems, young children, and the elderly. This one seems especially scary because there’s no vaccine for it yet, but at least in the states, it doesn’t seem any more deadly than any other kind of flu. But there are existing flu drugs that are effective against this strain of swine flu if taken within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms, so if you have “flu-like” symptoms, you should definitely see a doctor ASAP. And then stay the hell home instead of bringing your germs to the office where parents of young children and caregivers of elderly relatives can pick them up and pass them on to the most vulnerable.
(Can you tell I work for a health care-related organization? ;)
An entire busload of Asian tourists stopped in Rosslyn while I was outside earlier… every damn one of them had masks on. I tried not to laugh, but… well, I’m a horrible person. :)