Keeping Up With the Swine Flu

A special section of the CDC’s website includes a Q&A section (see Questions & Answers – Swine Influenza and You ), some debunked myths (no, you don’t get swine flu from eating pork), links to podcasts (and transcripts of press briefings), and a chart detailing the number of cases reported by state.

There’s even a page to let you know what’s new on the site, you can get email updates, and you can also follow the updates on twitter .

More information is available online at http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also has information on workplace preparations at http://www.osha.gov/dsg/topics/pandemicflu/index.html

Also see: Health and Human Services at http://www.hhs.gov/

Editor’s note While it is always advisable to be prepared, and to stay informed (hence this news item), I’m old enough to remember the last big swine flu “outbreak” (1976). At the time, as now, there was a lot of concern voiced about this turning into another pandemic on the order of 1918. Fortunately, only about 200 serious cases developed – and there was a single death in the United States (an army recruit who was one of the first to be diagnosed with the disease).

In fact, and somewhat ominously, at that time there were a lot more people “injured” by their reaction to the vaccine that about a quarter of the American population got (I’ll let you do your own research there). That, of course, was then, and that experience may have no relevance to the current situation. But, at least in my assessment, it bears recalling as our 24 hour news cycle pounds this story.

Bear in mind also that the CDC estimates that 36,000 people die in theevery year – from the “regular” flu.