It's more about the hype than the actual serious nature of the flu...Not making fun of any deaths, just the hype of this particular strain. If regular flu deaths were reported on the front page every day, we'd never read about anything else. 20,000 a year for ANY flu in the U.S.A. alone would mean 5-6 front page deaths from the flu every day. Unless someone publishes a 'Flu Only' newspaper, I'm flued out~!

Every time I cough it smells like bacon.....

http://www.whenswinefly.com

Straight from the WHO website (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_29/en/index.html):

"As of 18:00 GMT, 29 April 2009, nine countries have officially reported 148 cases of swine influenza A/H1N1 infection. The United States Government has reported 91 laboratory confirmed human cases, with one death. Mexico has reported 26 confirmed human cases of infection including seven deaths.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - Austria (1), Canada (13), Germany (3), Israel (2), New Zealand (3), Spain (4) and the United Kingdom (5)."

Look, folks, the potential for pandemic is serious, and no one is making light of the confirmed dead or the sick. If you can't laugh at something like this and feel the need to be overly sensitive and dour, then being on the internet is probably a bad idea. Making jokes is often the best way for people to deal with frightening things, and we are all being bombarded with reports on swine flu twenty four hours a day. It's nice to have a laugh.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/only-7-swine-flu-deaths-not-152-says-who-2 0090429-aml1.html

*ducks away from angry comments*

In the Netherlands, in 2008 we had 750 deaths in traffic. And we have very good trasckrecord compared to other countries in Europe where we has about 43 deaths per 1 million inhabitants. Compared: A country like the United Kingdom has about 50 and Belgium has about 101 deaths per million.

The Netherlands is a well developed country with an excellent healthcare system and a population of a little over 16 million people.
It is my estimate that there will be comparable numbers in the US if you even out the numbers. And in that case how will the numbers for that ordinary flu stack up worldwide?

At the same time, worldwide yearly there are about 12.00.000 deaths in traffic.

So again I ask- Only 152 worldwide for this new kind of flu and then all the panic...? I still don't understand.

It seems the same is happening here - deaths of people in developing nations are all fun, games, and cocktail conversation until someone in the First World dies, then the health departments really start to do more than express concerns.

Also, to anyone using "body count from X is higher than Y" argument, death is death - are we so desensitized that we can get some cheap laughs from other people's grief so long as something else kills more? At least I'm glad to see the totally inappropriate post regarding deceased Mexicans gone, kudos.

That said, a punny caveat whilst maintaining my outrage: Don't be a ham and hog up the comments with boarish spam - you can just can it.

1. The Spanish flu originally circulated as a moderately infectious and virulent strain before mutating and killing 30 million people. The ability for the strain to attenuate is largely due to the lack of containment and surveillance of the disease.

2. I assume most of you are healthy adults. This strain of flu is more deadly to healthy adults. The over-response of the immune system in healthy adults is usually the cause of death, rather than the actual virus itself.

3. Why have prior pandemics been able to spread so quickly? Well, lets simply apply some common-knowledge to that one. No internet. A lack of global surveillance. When the media can disseminate information to a large number of people quickly and those people can take precautions, the ability for the flu to spread is reduced. Obviously this is not the sole or main reason the flu isn't a pandemic yet, but it's certain a factor.

4. Comparing car crash mortality rates and influenza mortality rates is simply ridiculous. Yes, car crashes are a major problem. Go ahead and list off every god damn probably cause of death you want and talk about how "more people die every day of disease/accident/x." The truth of this matter is, if you all found out in a few months, when this disease subsides, that a highly infectious and potentially deadly strain of flu was infecting hundred of persons in the U.S, Mexico, Europe and a host of other nations, YOU WOULD BE LIGHTING UP MESSAGE BOARDS bitching about the lack of transparency in government and media. This point is the one that irks me that post as a person working in public health. If we do EVERYTHING we can to keep you safe from disease, people act bratty and laugh at the "overreaction" to the threat. If we do nothing and a disease emerges, everyone gets angry and tells acts why we did not do our job.

The truth of the matter is, diseases are highly unpredictable. At this moment, there are thousands of epidemiologists and public health workers flying into the center of the epidemic in Mexico to track this disease and determine the best ways to contain it. I'd like to see how many of you would be willing to go with them right now. Please don't mock the efforts of the people educated to deal with these problems.

I don't really know what you mean here but if you think that no one talks about deaths on roads then you're just not listening hard enough.

"So many deaths but it is deemed non-important in the greater scheme of things while at the same time the common flu under the old and the very young on yearly basis worldly still kills far more than this new Mexican flu?"

I don't know if that statistic is true but while anyone can get the regular flu, it rarely kills healthy people. ANYONE can get swine flu because no one is immune to it and it can, frankly, kill anyone who doesn't recieve the correct treatment in time. A slightly bigger deal, wouldn't you agree?

So many deaths but it is deemed non-important in the greater scheme of things while at the same time the common flu under the old and the very young on yearly basis worldly still kills far more than this new Mexican flu?