B&B

Please check out my friend Diane Morrow's company. I have her listed on my link list. She is the Vice President for B&B Group who promotes Christian authors such as Stephen Arterburn, who wrote the Every Man's Battle series and Lisa Beamer, wife of Todd Beamer, who was a passenger on one of the 9/11 flights. They also do PR for ministries and other organizations. Check it out!

Kissing a Pig?

I thought I would post this pic due to the recent scare of the swine flu. A friend of mine sent this to me today in an email and the title of it was "How You Get the Swine Flu". I thought we all could use a little humor since a lot of people are panicking.

But seriously, I thought I would post this from my kid's doc so you all could get a little bit more information. He sends emails from time to time on the latest and greatest information. Hopefully, you find it helpful..

Some questions about the Swine Flu have come up from yesterday's Newsymail.

Yes the virus will spread across America and the world. That is a pandemic by definition. It does not mean it is as deadly at the 1915 pandemic when they did not have antibiotics. Most new viruses spread throughout the world like HIV. Thank goodness Ebola has not.

Should I keep my infant less than 6 months old in and not take them out? The flu is rough on them and I would keep them, other younger children, and those with respiratory diseases from public places like church, restaurants, etc until this blows over. Hopefully we can contain it until next season when they will have a vaccine for it. Once the child is found out to be ill, they have already coughed and spread the virus at school. Short of closing school for the rest of the year ???? it is not helpful to keep your child home.

Once there are ill persons in this country, it will spread. Closing boarders and restricting travel is a panic attack.

Will Tamaflu and Relenza treat it? Yes this virus is susceptible to these. We should hold them for very ill patients. The flu virus this last winter had developed a resistance to Tamaflu because doctors gave it to everyone with a cough to lesson the illness by 1 day. Now the medication cannot be used for the regular flu. If we use it too much on this new strain of flu called Swine, then it will also be resistant and then we cannot use it on the very ill hospital cases.

Like yesterday's email, there will be illnesses that require hospitalization and some death but not the 10% like Mexico. That is why the CDC recommends the flu vaccine for every child and you should get your children vaccinated next fall. It is not perfect but lessens the chances of catching the flu and lessens the severity. We will see how deadly this virus is in the next few months as it spreads to every state. My personal guess is that the mortality will be similar to past flu viruses.

The manufacturers of masks are making big bank. The masks are not protective. Wash or sterilize your hands frequently is more important. But viewers see the people in Mexico wearing masks and think it is helpful. Smile at the people in the mall wearing masks. See: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm and you will not find Masks mentioned in protecting you.

Very interesting is the time line of the identification of this virus. This virus has been building before April 24th.

— December 2005 to January 2009: The Centers for Disease receives reports of 12 cases of human infection with swine flu. Five of these 12 cases occurred in patients who had direct exposure to pigs and six reported being near pigs.

— March 28: Believed to be the date of the earliest onset of the swine flu cases in the U.S., Dr. Nancy Cox of the CDC said in an April 23 press briefing.

— April 2: A 4-year-old boy contracted the virus before this date in Veracruz state, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova later said citing test results.

— April 6: Local health officials declare a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in the Mexican town of La Gloria in Veracruz state. Health officials record 400 cases of people who sought medical treatment in the previous week in the town. About 60 percent of the town of 3,000 are affected.

— April 17: CDC determines that two children in adjacent counties in southern California had illnesses caused by infection with swine flu. Both children became sick in late March.

— April 22: CDC confirms three additional cases of swine flu in California and two in Texas, near San Antonio.

— April 22: The Oaxaca Health Department of Mexico indicates that 16 employees at the Hospital Civil Aurelio Valdivieso have contracted respiratory disease.

— April 24: Mexico's Minister of Health confirms 20 deaths from swine flu, but 40 other fatalities were being probed and at least 943 nationwide were sick from the suspected flu.

— April 26: The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. climbs to 20 in five states. Mexico reports suspect clinical cases have been reported in 19 of the country's 32 states. Canada confirms six cases.

— April 27: The World Health Organization raises its pandemic alert status to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country.

Cordova said 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia since mid-April and about half of those have been released. The government does not yet know how many were swine flu. The CDC reports the suspected death toll in Mexico has climbed to 149. The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. climbs to at least 42 in five states. Spain reports its first confirmed swine flu case.

----April 28: The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the U.S. is up to 68 and more than a dozen suspected cases, including two probable cases in South Carolina and a confirmed case in Indiana. There is a suspected case in Orlando, Fla., but the CDC has yet to confirm it. The number of worldwide cases reportedly climbed to 93, including two confirmed cases in Israel and a second case in Spain. Meanwhile, the WHO says U.S. swine flu patients may have transmitted the virus to others in the United States, indicating that the new strain is spreading beyond travelers returning from Mexico.

April 27th Newsymail:

Everyone is talking about the swine flu. It is a new strain of flu and we see this every few years.

There are always a certain number of people who will die of viral illnesses like measles, chicken pox, and the flu. That is why we developed vaccines for chicken pox since there were rare kids who died of the disease. The higher the death rate then the more pressure there is to get a vaccine. Across the country, 83 children died from flu last winter, according to the CDC.

This new strain will eventually go across the country. Travel should not be stopped and wearing masks will only help those who cough from spreading germs outward. Masks will not stop those tiny viruses. Good hand washing is critical. Cough will spread the germ if you are within 3-6 feet of someone ill.

The death toll in Mexico is 152, with 1,614 cases ill. But all other countries have mild illnesses and no deaths yet. (There will be some rare cases of death as mentioned above.) Why is there 10% deaths in Mexico? We have had 50+ cases here in America so we should have had 5 deaths. ??? We have not had any. My personal opinion is that the air pollution in Mexico City is terrible and there are cases of Aids that are not diagnosed or treated. But we will see as the illness spreads and it will spread. I do not think it is a scary thing but the news media loves this kind of hype. Just realize there are always rare cases of death for even minor illnesses.

God bless us all