23 September 2009

Swine Flu Is Here

By here, I mean, in Pocatello. More specifically, at ISU:

POCATELLO - Idaho State University announced a student has contracted the school's first reported case of the H1N1 Virus, or Swine Flu.

A worker at the Student Health Center said it is a mild to moderate case. The results took about five days to return. Since then, the student has recovered.

The student does not live in university housing. LocalNews8


I can't remember what prompted it, but somehow the topic of being sick came up while I was going over some review material for a class, and one of my students commented that ISU now had a confirmed case of swine flu, so I went looking. Based on the information at Effect Measure, I would consider it worthwhile to get the vaccine when it becomes available, largely because having asthma puts me at greater risk for complications should I contract swine flu. I'm going from memory, so my figures may be off, but about 1% of people who get swine flu have it infect something deep inside the lungs, and at that point there's about a 50% survival rate. If you don't have it get deep inside the lungs, it seems to be no worse than regular seasonal flu.

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