Has Swine Flu Arrived In Pattaya?

[cigarchuck]

Has swine flu arrived in patttaya? It appears that people are bringing the swine flu from US to other countries.

[easyride]

I'm not madly in love with the USA, specifically George Bush and the rest of the world who rushed to lick his butt but why blame that country when swine flu originated - and continues to come from - Mexico?

[syd barrett]

It appears that this virus of swine flu is mild.

So I would imagine that people who get flu-like symptoms, or even those of a 'heavy cold' will just take to their bed for a few days and not bother with blood-tests and expert diagnosis.

So the true answer is: We just don't know, and (I) just don't care.

[LennyW]

Maybe..........

[anothertorres]

OMG WHAT IS THAT KILL IT KILL IT!!!!

[Carib]

There have always been a lot of swines in Pattaya ....

[Jingthing]

I'm not madly in love with the USA, specifically George Bush and the rest of the world who rushed to lick his butt but why blame that country when swine flu originated - and continues to come from - Mexico?

No country owns a flu bug. Not fair to blame Mexico.

[moo9]

Obviously it already arrived :-)

[Mighty Mouse]

Pattaya has enough of other more worrying diseases to contend with without having to worry about a mild flu virus.

[cigarchuck]

Have people died from the flu? Is that serious?

[IanForbes]

Here is an American journalist's column on the subject. He's a guy who lives in Mexico... Fred Reed... as in ... fredoneverything.net

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Brief Notes from Those Who Are About to Die

May 8, 2009

OK, yesterday on final into Guadalajara, at the height of the flu epidemic, indeed pandemic, predicted to be even more cleansing than the killer flu of 1918, perhaps the beginning of the long-expected plague that would eliminate mankind from the earth, no doubt to the earth’s relief, I was ready for the worst. I had read the papers, after all. I was sure there would be piles of festering corpses in the streets, such as one would expect after a Burundian election. I had read Defoe’s account of the bubonic plague in London, and knew that men with wheelbarrows would be collecting the dead. Especially with today’s littering laws.

Except that, when I had called Violeta every night during the two weeks I was in the US, she always said “What flu?” Ain’t got no flu heah. The schools were shut down, bars closed, everybody hiding from the flu, but they couldn’t find any flu to hide from. My friend Ken, in another town near Guad, reported an equal epidemic of perfect health. It was media flu, he suspected.

I knew better. I had read of the lightning spread, the hundreds of dead, the frightening appearance of cases in New Zealand, comparisons to the Black Death of 1348. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. The only logical explanation was that the Mexican government was quietly disposing of thousands—nay, tens of thousands—of dead so as not to alarm the tourist trade.

We deplaned. An official of some sort was handing out those funny little masks to anyone who wanted one, which practically no one did. Coming out of customs, everybody had to stand briefly in front of an infrared camera that made you appear green on a big screen if you didn’t have a fever, which nobody seemed to. No corpses. I guess they removed them really fast. No coughs. Come on, I thought. You’ve advertised the flu. Now produce it.

Violeta and Natalia picked me up, apparently not dead, and we headed south to Jocotepec. The streets were semi-deserted, traffic light. Maybe, I thought, a plague was a good thing. I mean, you could find parking. Mexico seemed to be taking the disease seriously, doing all the responsible things that one does with a plague. All it needed was a plague. Can you order plagues online, I wondered, being a practical sort.

That evening we went with friends to the Tortuga Sedienta in Ajijic for hamburgers and wine. (I’m not sure you are supposed to drink wine with hamburgers. The question consumes me.) One of said friends was a Mexican doctor, shock-trauma variety I believe, who had worked all over the world. In two hours of conversation, she never mentioned the careening extinction, the eminent PCS to the sky, the Permanent Change of Station that loomed over us like a bad divorce settlement. I guess it just didn’t make an impression on her. Or anyone else.

This morning I leaped like a startled jackrabbit to La Puta Dora and checked the Yahoo headlines, which didn’t mention the plague at all. This was ominous. I figured all the journalists must be dead. A news story I had read put the mortality from the Monster Flu at ten percent, so the reporters must have gotten it several times each to all be dead. So surviving it didn’t confer immunity. Bad, very bad.W

hat’s the deal? Sure, tomorrow the virus may erupt with renewed virulence and carry off whole populations. I suppose it’s more likely than an asteroid strike. Maybe. The Yahoo headlines say that someone in Illinois or somewhere is suspected of killing his third wife. All right, perhaps this is of greater import than a disease that is going to depopulate the earth. You have to respect the editor’s news judgement. (murdering your wife is a family matter and nobody else’s business. How about a little respect for privacy?) But if this flu business isn’t just a media frenzy staged by bored news weasels, why aren’t we hearing more about it? How come I can’t find it, and I’m supposed to be in the middle of it? Habeas corpus, I say.

[Jingthing]

Pattaya has enough of other more worrying diseases to contend with without having to worry about a mild flu virus.

Who ever said multiple bad things can't happen at the same time? The concern is that this will later mutate to something more massively lethal as the pattern of the current virus shows similarities with the origins of the 1918 pandemic.

[thaimate]

Pattaya has enough of other more worrying diseases to contend with without having to worry about a mild flu virus.

Who ever said multiple bad things can't happen at the same time? The concern is that this will later mutate to something more massively lethal as the pattern of the current virus shows similarities with the origins of the 1918 pandemic.

what,like mad cow disease, and all the other things that govts keep telling us are going to be the end of civalization as we know it,the polatics of fear---watch out global warming ,sorry cooling or whatever its now called is just around the corner ,higher taxes anyone ?

[anothertorres]

Pattaya has enough of other more worrying diseases to contend with without having to worry about a mild flu virus.

Who ever said multiple bad things can't happen at the same time? The concern is that this will later mutate to something more massively lethal as the pattern of the current virus shows similarities with the origins of the 1918 pandemic.

don't think anyone cares to argue that. the point of this thread is to ridicule such a dumb comment like "It appears that people are bringing the swine flu from US to other countries."

like we're packing pork flu in our carry-ons. pork flu jihad!

[LennyW]

Maybe not......

[Thaifreak]

Maybe..........

Is this a Thai albino, or What?

[Mighty Mouse]

Pattaya has enough of other more worrying diseases to contend with without having to worry about a mild flu virus.

Who ever said multiple bad things can't happen at the same time? The concern is that this will later mutate to something more massively lethal as the pattern of the current virus shows similarities with the origins of the 1918 pandemic.

It might be your concern but it certainly isn't mine. I'm more concerned about crossing Second Road safely than a flu virus.

I've never had the flu nor have I ever had the jab for any flu virus. Those of my mates who have, all ended up with the flu.

[BSJ]

If it was going to be a pandemic......it would be by now. Lets talk about something more important...........

[Jingthing]

If it was going to be a pandemic......it would be by now. Lets talk about something more important...........

On the verge of being a pandemic.

Symptoms in young adults atypical for normal seasonal flus.

This is only the beginning.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...9060201849.html

Edited June 3, 2009 by Jingthing

[moo9]

scary, see The Nation

Taiwanese returning from Thailand infected by influenza 2009

Taiwan has alerted Thailand that two Taiwanese who returned from Thailand were found infected by the influenza 2009, Thai Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadia said Tuesday,

Witthaya said the Thai side will ask Taiwan's health agency to provide more information on the Taiwanese such as where they visited during their trip in Thailand.

"We just know that they went to Pattaya with a tour group but we want to know more detail where they went during their visit in Thailand so that we could investigate the source of the influenza," Witthaya said.

He declined to give more details, saying more detail information will be revealed on Wednesday.

[moo9]

More news:

Team visits Pattaya to find traces of flu

By Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

Published on June 10, 2009

The Public Health Ministry's Surveillance and Rapid Response Team is surveying a hotel where two Taiwanese tourists suspected of having type A(H1N1) influenza stayed during their visit to Pattaya, to devise ways of controlling the disease.

Somchai Chakrabhand, director-general of the Disease Control Department, said the procedure, implemented earlier in Hua Hin where a German tourist was diagnosed with the flu, would be repeated in Pattaya.

Thai Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said yesterday many tourists entering Thailand were trying to avoid the influenza detecting thermal scanners at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport.

Some reduced their body temperature by using cool water to wash their face and taking antipyretic drugs. Such avoidance, by both homecoming Thais and tourists, could cause the disease to spread.

The discovery that two Taiwanese had been infected with the new flu virus in Thailand would have little effect on the tourism industry.

" The Public Health Ministry has done its best by using the heightened measures of surveillance to prevent the spread of disease, measures not used by the US and Europe," he said.

" We have to make the public understand that this disease could be treated and the rate of mortality is low," he added.

The Public Health Ministry reports the number of new flu victims in the country has reached 13.Another 31 are under observation for the flu. Of this number, 19 returned from the US.

The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in Thailand is expected to rise daily in as Thai students, study in the US under the Work and Travel project, return home after completing it.

" [People among] this group might have been infected as they have been in the US for a long time," he said.

The Health Ministry's deputy permanent secretary, Dr Paijit Warachit said about 200 students with the programme, might return from the US within this month.

"They will be told to stay at home for few days if they develop flu-like symptoms," he said.

The Disease Control Department's senior health officer, Dr Passakorn Akarasewee, said the ministry will also monitor pregnant women and patients with chronic disease as they are in the risk group for the virus infection.

[soundman]

Posts have been deleted for flaming. Please keep it civil.

[Chang_paarp]

Some scary words in this part of the above report...

The discovery that two Taiwanese had been infected with the new flu virus in Thailand would have little effect on the tourism industry.

" The Public Health Ministry has done its best by using the heightened measures of surveillance to prevent the spread of disease, measures not used by the US and Europe," he said.

Where is the ostrich smilie??? (I'd settle for 3 wise monkeys)

Would like to know what surveillance measures that are used in Thailand that the first world countries are not using.

[moo9]

Breaking from the Nation

Thailand found 21 new cases of Influenza 2009 in Pattaya

BANGKOK: -- Thailand on Thursday reported 21 new cases of the flu, all of them were discotheque staffs in Pattaya, Thai Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said.

Among the 90 samples collected from people who worked in hotel and discotheques in Pattaya, 21 of them were confirmed to be positive to the flu.

The collection of the samples were conducted after two Taiwanese who visited Pattaya were found infected by the flu when they returned home.

"All 21 cases which were found positive to the flu were staffs of a discotheque in Pattaya," he said.

He also referred to a 11-year-old student of a private school who was infected by the flu although he had no record of travelling to a foreign country like other patients.

His school suspended their classes for three days, starting today, to find the source of the flu.

Witthaya said the investigation still continued and still could not find the source.

He added that the ministry is still waiting for lab results of the boy's 13 classmates.

"About 30 teachers of the school are scheduled to return to Bangkok next week from the United States. We will also observe them," he said.

Meanwhile five more cases of the flu were confirmed on Thursday afternoon, one of them was mother of the 11-year-old infected boy.

The mother had no symptom but lab test showed that she was positive to the flu.

Another patient had no record of travelling abroad but he picked up his son who returned from a foreign country at Suvarnabhumi Airport recently.

Two other cases were a man who just returned from Singapore and a woman who visited the US recently.

The fifth was a British man who was on his way to Cambodia and made a transit at Suvarnabhumi Airport. He was found high fever and running nose. He was admitted to a hospital and lab test showed he was infected by the flu.

Hmmm.....

[soundman]

Topic continued here.