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We now have our first pandemic in 41 years - the swine flu, or as we first called it, the Mexican swine flu, or you may now know it as H1N1 influenza.

I am curious if there are people out there affected by this? Have you changed your habits? Just being more cautious?

I am just being more cautious. I am trying to get pregnant and do not want the Mexican flu. In Houston, that means choosing our restauraunts wisely. Bus boys, cooks, night cleaners, etc are mostly illegal - I know, a huge assumption, but if you live here you would agree with me. Although at this point, I don't think we should only be concerned about nationality.

Has it affected me personally?
Not personally, but I am from Houston. The first couple of weeks it was spreading, we had the first American death here downtown. Half of HISD closed down due to reported cases.


Side question - What do we pay the CDC for? Why did they not try and stop illegals from coming over the border? Why did they not temporarily halt air flow between our two countries? I know this would still not have stopped the spread, but it could have slowed it down until we figured out this strain better, maybe determined if a vaccine was needed. I though the CDC was here to protect us from disease, and I have not read a single article about what they are doing.
So, who is paying them to not do anything about our health?

Tesstellthet - the only way to be proactive about your kids is to talk to whoever they are visiting. Make sure they have not been in contact with anyone who has been sick 3-7 days prior to their visit. This alone will not mean anything, of course as you prob know, but this strain is new to our bodies. While the strain is no worse for ware than the regular flu, you should still be proactive if possible.
No, the scare here has gotten much better. All schools re-opened after an average of 2 weeks closure. I believe one never reopened (somewhere in the Heights if you know the area) and is under massive renovation and sterilization. If my memory serves me somewhat correctly, about 40+ kids were infected with some flu strain.

This is really just like flu season, in essence. I would just pretend like that, and treat your kids as if its flu season gone wild. But since they are coming to a place close to the origination of this strain (and by that I mean the people here from Mexico) I would definately read up on the strain and whatever area they are visiting. And make sure they don't eat at shady food joints - no taco stands

Yes! I read and watched the news. I pulled the kids out of daycare and summer camp to be on the safeside. I know it's a bit over the top. But it doesn't hurt to be careful.

The less contact with the sick the better. Unfortunately, not all parents keep their children home when they are really sick.

I do have a suggestion for any one who lives/eats in a city where the strain is reported, or even during flu seaason:

when eating out, don't order anything uncooked, like a salad. The preparation of these meals does not include the cooking process that kills off bacteria and some viral strains; and washing of the lettuce, despite what we are lead to believe, does not wash off anything.

I'm really suprised there are not more comments on this one. We're talking about the first pandemic in 41 years!

When I was in college 5 years ago, my molecular biology teacher taught us how all these scholars were predicting a flu pandemic for years. No one knew what strain (i.e. how bad) or if would be as bad as the last pandemic (anyone remember that one?) but they knew we were due for a pandemic.
Really, its our health people! Comments?