Even though UK’s had fewer swine flu fatalities than we have had here in the US, they’ve beaten us in producing a PSA about swine flu prevention. Check it out, it’s pretty good:

The WHO raised their Pandemic Alert Level to 5 yesterday, officially recognizing the spread of swine flu as being pandemic.

In light of all this, it’s more important than ever for everyone to know what steps they can take to avoid coming down with swine flu. Here’s a list to get you started.

Wash Your Hands!

Washing your hands is the best defense against the flu.

Now, we don’t want to sound like a prissy know-it-all, but you probably have been washing your hands wrong.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a proper handwashing session should go like this:

1. Run some warm water, wet your hands, and soap up.
2. Rub your hands together for 15 to 20 seconds (the amount of time it takes you to sing through to the first chorus of “Sweet Child Of Mine”)
3. Make sure to get the back of your hands, your wrists, between your fingers, and under your fingernails.
4. Rinse.
5. Dry your hands and turn off the faucet with the towel. (After all you touched the faucet handle with your dirty hands.)

If you think this sounds like a lot of work, you probably don’t have a manly job like longshoreman or alligator wrestler. It’s 15-20 seconds of warm water. Just do it so you can be that much less likely to get the damn flu.

The Mayo Clinic also gives a list of when you should wash your hands. Let me sum it up for you: Wash your hands before and after you do anything. If there’s no sink around, use hand sanitizer.

Don’t Pick Your Nose! Or Rub Your Eyes! Or Bite Your Nails!

Each of these men will have swine flu tomorrow. OK, OK, maybe they won't, but what they're doing makes them more likely to catch the flu.

We shouldn’t have to tell you not to do this. These are all nasty-ass habits to have anyway.

The flu virus can get into your body through mucous membranes (e.g. what your eye and the inside of your nose and mouth is). Since the virus can live for as long as 48 hours on some surfaces and there’s no way you can get around without touching stuff and getting germs on your hands, the idea here is to keep your nasty hands as far away as possible from places where the virus can enter.

Cover Your Damn Mouth When You Cough.
And While You’re At It, Cover Your Nose When You Sneeze.

After you sneeze, guess what you get to do? That’s right, wash your hands (after you throw away the tissue).

Most sources recommend you cough into the crook of your elbow rather than coughing into your bare hands. This is something I don’t like doing because hacking up phlegm onto my coat or shirt sucks. If you’re like me and don’t like mucousy clothes, cough into a tissue, toss it, then wash your hands.

Drink Lots Of Fluids And Do Regular Exercise

Your mother was right about both of these. You should call her and tell her.

Don’t Spend Time Around Sick People

They’re going to give you the flu. Avoid them. If you have to be around them, wear a mask and scrub your hands ASAP.

Don’t Become A Paranoid Nut

Now, there’s something to be said for avoiding crowds and public places, but don’t take it too far. Likewise, don’t make a production out of putting on a new pair of latex gloves each time you open a door or touch a handrail. Just be conscious of yourself, your body and your hygiene. That’s the best you can do.

For more on this, check out the CDC’s webpage Preventing the Flu: Good Health Habits Can Help Stop Germs.

This whole “pandemic” thing is scary as hell. How about some swine flu humor?

A Mexico City resident lends a certain savoir faire to his flu mask.

Introduction

The Telegraph ran a gallery of Chilangos (residents of Mexico City) wearing surgical masks as protection from swine flu. Wearing a mask to keep from getting sick may seem like a good idea, especially since so many other people do it. The Mexican Government is using masks as a disease control method. People all over Asia wear masks when they’re sick. So, should we start breaking out the masks?

Before going to the pharmacy you might consider the following: Do masks actually keep you safe from the flu? And, if they do, Which masks are the best to wear?

We’ll answer this by looking at the efficacy of  the masks that are commonly available.

Mask 1: The Surgical Mask

A woman wears a surgical mask.

To make a long story short, a surgical mask probably isn’t going to do much to keep you from getting sick.

The surgical mask can filter large drops of liquid. So, if you have sick people sneezing directly in your face, this will do some good.
However, the mask is not fine enough to filter out extremely small droplets or viruses randomly floating through the air, like if you’re in a crowd and some extremely contagious guy with the flu is breathing or coughing all over everyone.

Mask 2: N95 mask

An N95 respirator made by 3M.

An N95 respirator can filter out smaller particles (such as the flu-laden drops someone might cough on you), but still isn’t fine enough to filter out random viruses flying through the air.

That being said, this is the type of mask that the CDC is recommending doctors wear when working with swine flu patients.

Summary:

While the N95 sounds like it will reduce your chances of infection the most, remember that flu is mainly transmitted by touch. Someone with the flu grabs a door handle, and then you touch the handle later and then rub your eyes or eat with your hands. All that mask wearing for nothing.

Some have theorized that the main benefit of wearing a mask is that it gets you to keep your hands out of your mouth and away from your face in general. If you are prone to putting your hands in your mouth or nose, it might be worth wearing a mask just so you’re no longer able to continue doing so.

The CDC says to not screw around with wearing a mask unless you’re around people who you know are sick. Instead, wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, drink fluids, avoid crowds (if you’re paranoid), and stay away from sick people.

Do not go out in public if you are sick!
If you must go out, wear a mask to keep the disease from spreading.

If you want to read more about masks, check out this article in the LA Times or this one from the Brisbane Times.

This is a good overview of the symptoms of swine flu and a summary of what we know about it – I sent it to my parents in response to their “What is swine flu?” questions.

From SeattleTimes.com

According to the British paper The Guardian, doctors think that they may have found the first patient to contract the swine flu virus that’s now making the world so nervous.

The patient is four-year old Edgar Hernandez from the village of La Gloria, Veracruz, Mexico.

"A" is for "Holy shit, SWINE FLU!"

It’s just a dot on the map east of Mexico City, but La Gloria has been ravaged by the disease, with 60% of the population ill!

It’s important for epidemiologists to find the so-called “Patient Zero” (better termed the index case) so you can investigate things like

1. the rate of contraction for the disease (that is, how easy it was for people to catch)
2. statistics on those people who did come down ill with the disease (what other conditions did they have? age, sex, etc.)
3. investigate the mortality rate based on factors gleaned from this data.

Knowing where the disease started is a good thing.