What about Swine Flu Now?

So with no news stories for about 6 months now in regards to swine flu, it seems that swine flu has well and truly died down. This is not to say I'll simply close this blog down though, as I still believe by keeping up to date with the news and posting relevant articles we can still help to keep this in the public consciousness, and in case the influenza ever comes back in perhaps a more virulent form we shall remember what we learnt from the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.

I found this interesting press release from the Ministry of Health in New Zealand echoing the fact that swine flu cases are now below baseline levels and there's no cause for concern at the moment: http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/un-doctored/2010/september-2010/30/pandemic-influenza-h1n1-2009-(swine-flu)---update-210-.aspx

If you hear of any other news stories related to swine flu or similar influenzas you're welcome to share them here.

Still cases of swine flu going on

Just when we thought we'd seen the back of this pesky flu, another case in India today:

http://www.duniyalive.com/?p=121205

My guess is that we'll still see odd cases like these popping up in areas that swine flu has already hit. But at least, now we have the benefit of hindsight on how to contain such cases quickly and stop it infecting others.

Swine Flu Resources

The Direct gov. website is still providing useful information for people who think they have swine flu: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Swineflu/DG_177831

There's some useful links for detecting early and also the swine flu leaflet containing further information available in 15 languages.

It's good to see that this page hasnt been taken down by the Direct gov. website, as there are still reports of people being diagnosed with swine flu.

Haiti Earthquake Appeal

So there's already a lot of good charitable events and ways people can help the people of Haiti, but in case you're still wondering in what way you can contribute and help in some way the efforts of the diasaster recovery there, then I'm providing a link which lets you donate to the Red Cross - a very reputable British humanitarian organization. It's a sad way to start of the year with this kind of post, (I was hoping to recap on last year and how the swine flu pandemic broke out and then eventually died down, but now this seems trivial). Thanks for reading this.

Help the people of Haiti
Please make your donation today to the Red Cross.

Happy New Year!

Well as the first blog post of 2010, it seems only fitting to do the obligatory Happy New Year Post. 2009 was one in which we all witnessed the fear - spread largely by the media, of the pandemic outbreak that broke in april 2009. But the tail end of 2009 saw it dying down, and fears softened by the release of a general vaccination widely available and initially dispensed to vulnerable groups. 2010 will probably still have some media coverage here and then, so I shall endeveaour to keep the blog running, with some updated information as and when it's released. But, let's hope that I don't need to write about a new outbreak of swine flu in 2010.

Thanks for following, and continue to post me your comments and ideas for the blog.

Happy New Year.