According to our chief public officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, the H1N1 is no worse than seasonal flu.
Although H1N1 is disproportionately infecting more children and otherwise healthy young adults "the mortality rate from this [H1N1] is no worse than seasonal flu," Dr. David Butler-Jones said in an interview with Canwest News Service.
"The individual risk of severe disease or dying if you happen to get the flu is very similar today as it was back in June. It's just that we're starting to see a lot more people affected," he said.
"The fact that we haven't had more deaths and more people in [intensive-care units] I think is a testimony to people doing the right things to both prevent and reduce the severity of disease," Dr. Butler-Jones said. People are following public health advice to cough and sneeze into their sleeves, stay home if they're sick and get on anti-virals if symptoms are worsening, he said.
"When you do take this disease seriously, you can actually dramatically reduce the number of people with severe illness and death," Dr. Butler-Jones said. "So the usual 2,000 to 8,000 range [of flu-related deaths] that we see with seasonal flu, we might actually be able to reduce that substantially."
The ones that really hyped this up and have overblown it is the media and some in the opposition. Hey, sensationalism and fear sells papers and drives up ratings. The opposition, they just want try and score political points. At that note looks like that is backfiring. Take a look at the polls.
So take proper precautions like wash your hands, get plenty sleep, keep your stress levels down, eat healthy you'll be fine.
