[Nfbf-l] OT: The Swine Flu vaccination

[Marion & Martin]

Dear All,
    I know this is off-topic, but the H1N1 virus is a serious threat to everyone! My future brother-in-law (Mary Lou and Corey are getting married on November 28), who many of you met at an NFBF convention, is a physician and sent me this message, encouraging me to send it on to those I care about! Here it is for you!

Peace!
Marion Gwizdala





I've done some reading, and there was a recent great set of articles in New England Journal of Med about the H1N1.  Also I have heard some patients say "I'm not going to take any government vaccination".  Here are some sobering facts, based on the first six months of the outbreak in the US plus the experience of the outbreak in New Zealand and Australia.

 

1.       About one in 80 to 150 people who get this flu die.

2.       If you get hospitalized, 25 % go to the ICU, and of those 20% die.

3.       The average age of those that die is 20 to 35, not the very young and very old as usually occurs with other flus. Older patients have caught a similar virus years ago and have some protection, plus some of us were vaccinated against swine flu in the 70's. 

4.       People at highest risk for death are pregnant women, obese and very obese people, and then those with chronic illnesses.

5.       30 % of those who die had no underlying health problems. 

6.       The vaccine lowers the risk of serious illness and death by 80%, and immunity develops after about 8 days.

7.       We think this flu epidemic will get much worse as winter arrives, unless we can get large numbers of people vaccinated with the H1N1 vaccine.  Fortunately prior vaccination with the regular flu vaccine offers some partial protection. 

8.       I have already lost two patients from this, one was a healthy obese male in his 20s, and the other was a fifty year old woman with rheumatoid arthritis.

 

So, please take the H1N1 vaccine as soon as you can, and stay away from sick people until you get it.  

Feel free to forward this note to anyone you care about. 

 

Love, Corey/DAD