Proving that not all airplane conversations are going to be bad, I had the chance to chat with Susanne Carlson who has a fascinating job (and a ridiculously long title).
She is the Administrative Officer of the Oregon Disaster Medical Team and of the Western Region of the National Disaster Medical Service. (www.ndms.gov)
What that means…as you will see in the video…is that she is part of the medical swat team responsible for being a “first responder” in any type of disaster scenario.
She’s got some interesting comments about Katrina and after that, she shared her thoughts (not on the video) about the upcoming flu season.
Her take?
The Swine Flu predictions are accurate and it will be a big problem. She says there is a huge misunderstanding regarding Swine Flu and that calling it a “pandemic” is, in fact, accurate.
The definition of a “Pandemic” is:
- how many places/continents/countries it is affecting at the same time, not how many people get sick
- the speed with which it moves from one place to another
- the speed with which the virus mutates
Based on what we’ve seen in the southern Hemisphere thus far, this virus is mutating very rapidly and there is a huge portion that has mutated to be immune to normal anti-virals.
It doesn’t follow the normal demographic patterns…Usually it is the ill and the elderly, but now, those who are getting the most sick are those who are young and don’t suffer from other diseases.
It suggests that older people have seen this virus before and are thus immune.
The very first set of immunizations are going to young children and pregnant women.
The third reason is that this virus is very highly mobile and moves rapidly through a population.
This differs from a normal influenza situation where we see 1 in 100 get sick. We’ll see approximately 1 in 10.
The last thing is that it doesn’t go through the normal influenza pattern as it goes directly to the lungs.
This is NOT fear-mongering, in her opinion, this is reality.
Purell is good, but she says the best is 30 seconds (sing ‘row, row, row your boat) of soap and warm water, avoid contacts (won’t put your fingers in your eyes) and get your flu shots (ALL of them).
1 in 5 will get sick and hundreds of thousands (in the US) could end up dying.
The good news: people are talking about it and getting prepared
The bad news: we may not be prepared enough and it’s a public health challenge to guarantee compliance
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