Article from Baltimore Sun, state officials are saying they had H3 strain with bacterial co-infections that led to complications and death. I'm not enough of an expert to know if this sounds plausible.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/blog/....

Well, crap! There was mention of this on WBAL radio this morning and I didn't watch the local news tonight. I don't see it on the TV station websites or on the Baltimore Sun website. It's also missing from the Washington Post and Washington Examiner websites but I can find out a lot about the new IPad and we know that's much more important!

Xiao, thanks, I missed the Sun article.

If any of you are familiar with the book "The Great Influenza" by John Berry, this should scare the **** out of you. The book is about the 1918 Influenza or Spanish Flu, and there are similarities right from the get go...

No need to read the book...I've already got the **** scared out of me. If its airborne, I'm more concerned with how many planes flew out of that area headed to Raleigh. In addition, my husband is a cable technician who is in and out of customer homes all day long, every day.

We will be making our plan immediately. Life is too precious to me to wait.

Yeah, **** this. I'm going to be prepared to assume the FETAL position within 24 hours comfortably (I can always do it on a "must do now" basis, but it takes a few hours of final preps to be able to COMFORTABLY lock it down for a week to a month.)

If there is ANY confirmation of case(s) outside of that immediate area anyone who doesn't treat this as a full-blown "**** me" event immediately is an abject idiot.

So if you didn't already get a flu shot do it now before they run out?

About going into "lockdown" mode-- Laurie Garrett in the TED video from a couple of years ago was saying something more like 2-3 months minimum, up to 6 months, no?

A flu shot is unlikely to be materially protective if this is some hybrid strain.

*tin foil hat on*

Perhaps this will lead to the information black hole that cliff mentions in his latest web bot video...

*tin foil hat off*

CNN.com -

Maryland flu deaths mysterious


The Calvert County investigation into the flu deaths of 3 family members in Lusby, Maryland, found two of them–a 58 year-old brother and his 56-year-old-sister died of serious lung infections, a complication of seasonal flu.

The CDC already has confirmed the siblings died of influenza A. The strain is still unknown. Their 81-year-old mother, who was being cared for by her three children died at home Thursday of complications from the flu. The surviving sibling, a 51-year-old woman, remains in guarded condition at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., where she is responding to treatment.

Dr. David Rogers, Health Officer of Calvert County, says the investigation into the flu deaths of the three family members in Lusby, Maryland, is continuing. Rogers told CNN while unusual, these were isolated cases and the community at large should not be overly concerned or alarmed.

"This is extremely rare. I think what happened here is that we had an elderly woman who got flu, then she suffered a complication of flu, a severe bacterial pneumonia. Three kids came to provide bedside care and came in close contact. They may not only have caught flu from her but the serious lung infection that she had." Rogers said. "This is a very isolated situation where you have four people in a home, in close contact. This happens not infrequently in elderly people."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 90% of seasonal flu related deaths and more than 60% of flu related hospitalizations in the United States each year are in people 65 or older.

The sister of the deceased 81-year old woman is now also being treated for flu like symptoms at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Dr. Janis Orlowski, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, says the woman was admitted last night and is in fair condition.

"We don't yet know what this is about," Orlowski said. "She has a fever and a cough. They were all together at a funeral last week. Individuals could easily have caught the flu–a large gathering of people, hugging, consoling, possibly sharing a meal."

"If the individuals had the flu at that time it is quite likely that others are showing signs of the flu," says Orlowski. 'If I was in that family and felt ill, I would seek medical attention early."

Orlowski also treated the brother, who passed away at the hospital Monday night.

She says the bacterial infection they had was a staphylococcal (staph) infection, which she calls a super infection. Cultures on the surviving sister are not back yet. The source of the staph is still unknown, but Orlowski says the bacteria is naturally on the body. On skin, in the nose. Most people, she says, don't catch it from someone else.

"The question is did the mother have the staph where it went to the hands of the children and they got infected or did each end up becoming super infected with their own bacteria and we don't know the answer to that. It's likely we will never know."

And rare enough that they looked for other sources.

"We did look for poison, carbon monoxide in the house, did they all ingest something?" Orlowski asks. "It's astonishingly rare, such that we are all looking that other explanations."

Orlowski says over the last several days the hospital emergency room filled with nearly 400 patients. Most had chronic illnesses like heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and liver disease made worse by a bout of flu.

"It's flu season in the mid-Atlantic area so I urge the public to get vaccinated if you have not been, wash your hands, and if you are ill, don't go to school or work. We don't want you to spread the illness."

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/07....

Genesis wrote..

A flu shot is unlikely to be materially protective if this is some hybrid strain.

If it's H3N2v like this person seems to suggest then it would be covered by this season's flu shot.

http://fluboard.rhizalabs.com/forum/view....

niman @Rhiza Lab forum wrote..

You are spot on. The H3 is the trigger for the fatal cases and the attack rate is 100% with a 75% CFR. CDC and Maryland have not addressed additional questions about PCR testing or sequencing.

This H3 is likely the "low reactors" which exploded in last week's FluView, and the liklihood that the H3 is H3N2v continues to increase.

Traffic here (closing in on 200 views with 5000 views on this thread in one day) and at Recombinomics is going through the roof. Activity has not been this high in years.

That poster appears to be involved in the flu vaccine consulting business.

https://twitter.com/#!/hniman

http://www.recombinomics.com/consulting.....

Quote:

H1N1 Pandemic Consulting

Recombinomics offers consulting on viral evolution and consequences, with emphasis on the H1N1 pandemic. Private and public influenza sequences are analyzed with patent pending technology to facilitate vaccine target selection and pandemic preparedness.

This analysis is supplemented with extensive tracking of H1N1 sequences worldwide including boots on the ground reports from key areas.

Predictions base on this dynamic analysis is of interest to vaccine manufacturers and pandemic planners in the public and private sectors.

contact:

Henry L Niman, PhD

henry_niman@recombinomics.com

412.963.1362 (office)
617.877.0987 (cell)

www.recombinomics.com

Heh, if it's in the current season's shot, then yes, I'd go get it.

This is all taking place only 30 miles from the District of Criminals.

On the other hand Henry Niman is apparently not known for accurate predictions:

http://www.drmartinwilliams.com/h5n1-pou....

http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?....

But he has published papers:

http://precedings.nature.com/users/3db4c....

A fifth member of the Calvert County family stricken by serious lung infections and complications of flu is at MedStar Washington Hospital Center for evaluation, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Three family members have died in the past week.

The newest person to come under medical attention is the sister of Lou Ruth Blake, 81. Blake died at her home in Lusby on March 1. The sister has a fever but does not appear to have other flulike symptoms, the spokeswoman said.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/h....

Apparently this flu going around here is pretty nasty as it seams that a lot of people getting it are getting pneumonia

we have been fighting colds for a few weeks now —

two friends in So Cal said they just came down with the flu

Is it possible there are two strains going around?

Pin this util we know how bad it is going to get.

so it begins:-O

Last year when the swine flu scare started, I was literally watching The Stand when I saw the threads here about it. Fortunately that blew over then. We aren't going to get that lucky forever though.

Any shelter in place to do lists? How to prepare etc?

Quote:

staphylococcal (staph) infection, which she calls a super infection

MRSA? I wish they would say.

And yes Vegas, there can be multiple strains...if I remember right the flu shot this year covers three.

Anyone else know for sure what's in this years shot?

Quote:

Anyone else know for sure what's in this years shot?

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccine-....

I believe the answer is at the above CDC link. Or more specifically here:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccine-....

Thanks.

I wish I could avoid the H1N1. Had that flu and didn't like how over crazy my immune system was. Scares me to get that vax. But if H3N2 is killing folks, I'll probably dare it.

In the vax:
an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus;
an A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus; and
a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus.

I have long thought the world was overdue a pandemic due to the mobility of people compared to their mobility in the past. All it takes is a new strain that has a long incubation period (the longer the incubation the more it spreads before anyone knows they have it), is airborne transmittable, and high mortality rates. Two out of the three you get an epidemic, three out of three you get a pandemic.

If you think about it, it has been almost 100 years since the last pandemic and it occurred when their was no mass transient for the common person on planes.

Every time I see one of these stories, I get a bit uneasy.