Coronavirus Testing

They are not being brought back under protective guard, they have to find their own way on commercial airlines. And I doubt they can quarantine up to 30,000 people.

Might as well start cutting up old sheets to make masks, though the virus is as likely to be spread by hand contact. I saw, in Boots, last week, a hand gel that promised anti-virus protection. They jumped on that bandwagon pretty fast.
.

I was reading about the 1918 Spanish flu.

Interestingly, some DNA was recovered from the tissues of diseased 1918 victims. In 2010, a group of researchers determined that the 1918 virus had the capacity (via three of its genes) to weaken the bronchial tubes and lungs, thus enabling secondary (bacterial) pneumonia to take hold.

It appears that most Spanish flu victims died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia...likewise SARS and MERS? We do know that Pneumonia can be caused by both viruses or bacteria.

Not equating Wuhan Corona virus to the Spanish flu virus, but what if all these viruses have something in common besides spreading easily?

Do they all weaken respiratory tissue in a similar manner? If that's true, then it's the opportunistic bacterial pneumonia that could actually be the real killer. Currently, there is a (two dose) pneumonia vaccine available. Getting the pneumonia vaccine may not be a cure, but could potentially save lives.

That's a very interesting post willa45 and I think you're right. Thanks for such wise words.

Willa they didn’t have antibiotics in 1918 and Spanish Flu swept through the population with very little medical intervention.
So despite some very valid points, I don’t think we can draw too many parallels with 102 years ago do you?

willa I did think of that because DH has had the pneumonia vaccine and I have not.
I must find out if it is a live or inert vaccine.

I think that Spanish flu killed more people than died in WW1 and no, we cannot equate it with viruses today, even with today's pandemics.

Viruses constantly mutate and are always one step ahead of humans!

Does anyone remember having Asian flu in 1957? I remember it but I can't remember if my parents had it or not.

My grandfather died of the Spanish flu. It went like wildfire through the troopships bringing men home from the theatres of war. My grandfather was serving in Salonika and travelled on a troopship going from there to Marseille, where they transferred to trains for the journey to the channelports. He was taken into hospital in Marseille and died a few days later from pneumonia.

I can remember the 1957 Asian flu epidemic. I was at bording school and gradually as the sanitorium filled more and more dormitories were taken over as extensions to it. Neither I nor either of my sisters got it. The school shut down for a fortnight and we went back to our house on an army camp, where it was running rife in the barracks and DF went to work each day. No one in the family got it. In fact I do not think any one in the family has ever had flu. I certainly haven't.

I had Asian 'flu' in Aden. I was ten and remember my bed being dragged into the middle of the room so I was directly under the ceiling fan. The only drink I fancied sipping was Lucozade which was hard to get hold of and rationed so Dad put the word out amongst friends and neighbours who didn't have anyone ill.

I thought I was the only one to get it in the family but found out afterwards that my brother had been very ill in boarding school. My poor mother must have been frantic caring for one child in a very hot country while another one was thousands of miles away in a school san.

Fortunately, my baby brother didn't get it.

Antibiotics are useless against viruses anyway.

My gran lost her mother, her sister and her 7-month old son to Spanish ‘flu, all within the same week.

The new case is in Brighton, in case anyone needs to know

Chestnut, Maw, Callistemon and Monica,

You're so welcome Chestnut!

Maw and Callistemon......I had a bad flu back in the early 70s.....I believe it was called 'Hong Kong' flu. Hong Kong was the first known outbreak of the H3N2 strain, a sub-type of H3NI. There is also serologic evidence of H3N1 infections in the late 19th century (Queen Mary Hospital). People who have had Asian or Hong Kong flu appear to retain some immunity due to previous infections. It could be because some of these 'bugs' do share DNA. Maw, agree....today, modern medicine has vaccines as well as antibiotics and antivirals to fight these little monsters.

M0nica...Sorry about your grandfather, but the rest of you were very fortunate! I too had a great aunt who had the Spanish flu at age nineteen. After she recovered (seemingly), no one knew that she had been left with a badly damaged heart. It appears that a secondary, opportunistic (strep) infection had also taken hold. She was engaged to be married the following year (1921), but instead succumbed to catastrophic heart failure. Had there been antibiotics back then, my grandparents would have been dancing at her wedding instead of going to her funeral.

My understanding is that the mortality rate is about 2% and that those who have died in China were already in quite poor health.

Not that I’m suggesting complacency but it’s important to get it in perspective.

I was going to make the same point as Yehbut about how antibiotics are useless against viruses.

It's not the flu itself but the complications afterwards that can be disastrous. Just the other year the Australian flu caused complications when we were there, as far as I know more in younger and fit people.

The pneumonia jab seems to be extensive in its effect. Perhaps those who haven't had it might like to get it.

Even if we cannot be protected ourselves from the corona virus, we can at least protect ourselves against the potentially fatal streptoccocal pneumonia that may follow.

Jennifer,

As Callistemon said, it's not the virus itself that can kill, it's also the complications....many of them caused by bacterial infections.

The point being that not only do we need protection against the flu virus but we should need to take precautions against bacterial infections, because flu viruses can make us especially susceptible to serious bacterial infections, as well.

Sorry....I'm beginning to sound like a broken record

Sorry....I'm beginning to sound like a broken record

It's worth repeating willa45 as we need to stay as safe as possible.

Is our government completely bonkers telling all Brits in China to come back here? Other countries have banned travel from China. If anything is guaranteed to spread the virus it's international travel.

Chestnut,
As long as they're strictly quarantined as soon as they arrive, everyone else should be OK.

I suspect that there is a reason that the government is advising tens of thousands of British nationals to return. My guess is that the infection and death rate are highly underestimated. However it does seem that a return will spread it, but maybe that's inevitable?

willa45 - there are thousands of Brits in China. How can they quarantine them all on arrival?

Yes that’s true willa45 but there is also a lot of misconception around regarding antibiotics and viruses.

Chestnut.....
Didn't realize there were that many.

Here in the US, they are chartering flights to bring Americans home. Upon arrival, they are swiftly bused to military bases to be quarantined for at least fourteen days. Several of these Charters have already landed in places like California and Texas; most of them with less than two hundred passengers at a time.

There are about 30,000 British nationals in China, willa.

Chestnut, not all of them will come home, many who have lived there along time will just hunker down. Those who do come will not come home in one day, not sufficient flights, but will return slowly over a month plus. So some will be through quarantine and away before others arrive. There are also other empty NHS and barrack sites with large unoccupied buildings that can be turned into quarantine centres.