Media Induced Panic

It's not uncommon these days to turn on the television and see some report of a major health crisis affecting not only our nation but also the world. There seems to be a new epidemic/pandemic every year that threatens our very existence. And so with the ringing in of 2009 we have the notorious Swine Flu A H1N1. It was first discovered in a patient in southern California in later March by the CDC. Mexico had also been dealing with a recent increase in flu like symptoms and discovered that it's patients were also infected with this new strain of the virus. After what I can assume to be a painstaking history process Patient 0 was eventually discovered to be a small boy in Mexico. From there the virus spread to the rest of the world. Since it's discovery the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised it's pandemic alert level from 3 (which has where it's been since the recent Avian Flu outbreaks) which means that human to human infection is not yet present to a level 5 meaning the human to human infection is sustained and a pandemic is very, very possible.It has now infected people in over 18 countries with a total worldwide infection of 898 (as per WHO report on May 3rd, 2009 at 11:00 am). Mexico has the highest number of cases with 506 CONFIRMED including 19 deaths. The United States has CONFIRMED 226 cases, at least one in every state, with 1 death in Texas, an infant visiting from Mexico City. Austria (1), Canada (85), China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Costa Rica (1), Denmark (1), France (2), Germany (8), Ireland (1), Israel (3), Italy (1), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Republic of Korea (1), Spain (40), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (15) have all reported confirmed cases as well, however no deaths. All this information can be found on the CDC's and WHO's web pages.
So we have a new strain of influenza that has the potential to be problematic. This wouldn't be the first time the world has faced this problem. Back in 1918-1920 the world was struck with possibly the worst pandemic (even worse than the black plague) it's ever seen. This flu was named the Spanish Flu (more correctly named the flu of 1918 because it didn't originate in Spain) and killed between 50-100 million people worldwide. It is estimated to have infected over 1/3 of the worlds population at the time. All this took place in a course of 18 months. It generally infected and killed healthy young adults with strong immune systems. The belief is that this particular strain sent the immune system into a cytokine storm, or over surge with destroyed the body. Those with weak immune systems, like the elderly or infants weren't as susceptible, thus the noteworthy death of young adults. Two other well known pandemics were the Asian Flu of 1957 and the Hong Kong Flu of 1968, although they weren't as virulent or lethal as the flu of 1918. These were serious pandemics which affected the world in a great way.
In my lifetime this is the third "flu epidemic/pandemic" that has been reported. Back in 1988 there was a similar Swine Flu outbreak that received wide coverage by the media. In 2004 Avian flu was the new pandemic. Both of these influenzas received broad media hype and scared a lot of people. Now in 2009 we have another media propagated Swine Flu. Here's the problem with media propagated medical issues:



Now I don't wish to sound like this doesn't have the potential to cause a worldwide problem, because it can have that potential. But what worries me more is the widespread hysteria generated by those individuals who are influenced by media, rumors and opinions from friends/acquaintances, and hypochondriacs. The biggest problem with this is that incorrect information is given, or correct information is given but the interpretation of such information is questionable. For example, the virus name H1N1 is not an entirely new virus. The recent strain isolated and now known as the Swine Flu A H1N1 is actually a recombination of four different viral strains, one of which being a common human H1N1 virus. This strain affects millions of people every year and according to the WHO "these annual epidemics result in about three to five million cases of severe illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths" annually. Another great example is that of the number of infections being reported by the WHO and the CDC, 898 internationally and 226 in the US. While some might quote these numbers and say that the infected rate has more than doubled in the past day and that more and more cases are being seen, what is being reported is that if you take the overall worldwide cases of 898 and factor that into a worldwide population of over 6 billion people, well people the math turns out to be 2 x 10-7 (or 0.0000002%) worldwide infection. Now lets take the number of infected US citizens at 226 divided by a population a little over 304 million that equates out to 7 x 10 -7 (or 0.0000007%) US infected, with 1 death that technically isn't even a citizen but a visitor from Mexico.

Remember people that 60% of statistics are made up 55% of the time by 9/10 dentist who recommend Crest to 90% of their patients.

And so I repeat, this new strain can have the potential to break out into a pandemic as bad as the Hong Kong or Asian or heaven forbid the 1918 Flu but let's not let the media scare us into overreaction or irrational acting. The best place to get information on the current situation is from your health care provider and also from the CDC or WHO. They will have information on how to protect yourself and others, what signs and symptoms to look for, and what to do if you do come down with a case of influenza, swine flu or not. The information given by health care providers right now is the following:

Protection:
-Avoid close contact with those who are symptomatic.
-Regularly wash your hands with soap and warm water. Use of antiseptic gels when/where needed (but if you live in Ogden you'll be hard pressed to find them seeing how many stores have sold out.)
-Do not share eating utensils and other things of such nature with those who might be sick.
-Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or sleeve when coughing and sneezing. Wash your hands immediately after.
-Maintain a healthy life. This means eating healthy (fruits, vegetables, grains, etc), getting plenty of rest, and daily exercise. (This is the most effective disease prevention for almost any disease)

And most of all, stay up to date on correct information posted by responsible agencies. Television news, newspapers, etc all have an agenda to fill and it's about "getting the story first." It doesn't have to be the correct story, just the story. Media is in competition with each other and whatever will get the best ratings will be aired. Remember "898 worldwide infections in 18 different countries have been reported so far!" sounds a lot more serious than "898 worldwide infections in 18 different countries which equates to be 0.0000002% of the worldwide population."