H1N1 Dummies Of The Year Nominee

At least a hundred persons in our city have been infected with the H1N1 virus. I was very scared to get infected with this disease during the pandemic:*'

Graphs of the data look pretty scary. You can see a bunch of them at www.swineflu4dummies.com

It's just like regular Flu...it's mostly spread by poor hand hygiene, basically not washing your hands after sneezing or covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough. You can also catch it from being in close contact with someone who has it (ie, they sneeze or cough in the same room and you're breathing in the virus in water vapour or whatever).

But yeah, apparently the common cold and most forms of Influenza would be almost unheard of in our society if people washed their hands properly, more regularly throughout the day. Oh, and the best thing to avoid doing is putting your hands to your mouth, or to your eyes.

Although, I don't wanna come over all OCD on ya! :P

Luckily I don't live in a major city, so hopefully can stay away from all this somewhat...although I have been in London quite a bit recently, and I think everyone gets a little worried when someone sneezes on a crowded underground train at the moment!!

But yeah, from what I've heard the illness is likely to plateau here in the UK due to it being summer (kids not cooped up in school together, less illness around in general etc) , then come back with a vengeance during the winter months. By then the medical peeps are hoping to have a vaccine sorted.

I did hear an interesting fact though that people over 60 may be immune to the illness because this was around a few decades ago and their immune systems would have remembered it. Young people have been catching it the most, as they haven't been exposed to it at all before.