I was just having a conversation with my wife about the swine flu, because here in the UK where we live, the local councils have said that to contain swine flu from spreading once the children go back to school after their summer break, some schools may close for another month to contain it.

So my wife then asked do you know anybody who has it, and I didnt and she didnt either, and between us in fairness what with work, school, family & friends and our community we do know a lot of people.

As ATS is a worlwide forum, I wondered if I posted the question, of how many of you actually know wnaybody, would the response be fair in comparison to what we hear and see in the media, and the low level panic that exists in both, and what they have us believe.

So.

Where in the world is swine flu?

Be great to get a bit of feedback from different areas, to gage the problem.

I know a couple of people in Brazil and in the US that have it or had it.
Anyhow, from what I'm told of these people that had it its a little stronger then a normal flu but nothing as dangerous as the media makes it seem.
Most of them recovered already, if I'm not mistaken.

Ye thats what I'm thinking that many people we know have had it already but they just got over it.

But what I was trying to say was, that this flu is getting way more media and panic news than any flu before it, and I wanted to gage the reason for it being so much in the mainstream news.

It seems to me, its played out far worse in the media, than it really is, and I'm also reading stories that people qued up for it over night at the dr's and so on. But I dont know one single person. So is this a biological issue or a media issue, in that they testing out how pwerful their media distribution is than the flu is.

Guys, you will be the first one's I've told. Yesterday morning I was the first one to get to my office. I heard something in the back, so I walked back there to find one of our Interns. I almost didn't recognize him. He was very sick. Swine flu never crossed my mind. He then told me it has swept through the University. 21 people with it day before yesterday, 90 today. His girlfriend is one of them. The University has called all their parents to come get them (the one's living in dorms and sorority houses).

I sent him home and told him not to come back until he was well. He was worried about his Intern-hours. (aaarg). (I'm not cold, I did ask what I could do for him, did he want me to call his parents, etc.). But I am very disappointed that he had the poor judgment to bring this flu into our office.

My boss then came in and I related what had happened. He confirmed his awareness that it is spreading through the University, and the junior college, and one of the high schools. On my way home, I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up something, and the phamacy tech said they have been doing nothing for the last two days except filling "Tamiflu" Rx's.

So, I have officially been exposed. I googled the incubation period and it said 1 to 5 days. I feel fine today. It is airborne, but stronger if you touch the person, and get the germs that way. I did not touch him, and I backed off about eight feet away once I realized what was going on. I was already off today, so I haven't heard any news on whether the numbers at the University are way up. But from 21 to 90 almost overnight is a lot.

But the students were tested, and the results were positive for H1N1. I am in the southern US.

Im in the UK and both me and my girlfriend have had it and so have both of her parents.

Its really not that bad, no worse than seasonal flu or a really bad cold. Neither me or my gf had tamiflu although her parents did. All of us were pretty much to ill to go out for just over 8 days on average.

Don't worry, unless it mutates in the winter its not that bad at the moment.

I have a friend who had it. Picked it up in Israel and brought it back to Connecticut. I know a few other people who have had it in Connecticut.

And apparently cases in Maine are pretty widespread.

Here in northwest Germany, according to the newspapers, there are tons of people brining the Swine Flu back from Spain. My wife knows someone in Canada that has the Swine Flu, too.

On a conspiratorial note, if the Swine Flu was manufactured by "the powers that be" I could totally see it happening that they try to keep it quiet until the winter sets in in the Northern Hemisphere, were the majority of the people live. They'd want people to forget about it, and freak out again, as opposed to people just getting used to it. That could be why we don't hear much about it anymore [at least, they hardly talk about it up here].

Despite the news saying that a lot of cases were reported here in my city, i don't know anybody, not my family or friends did.

I live in central Oregon in the USA and I know of no one personally who has had any kind of influenza for quite some time. To my rememberence we have had no cases of H1N1 in our county, which has around 322,000. While flu can be a very bad virus at times I think this strain is'nt. I have not heard of it killing thousands in the southern hemisphere.