[I had the flu a year ago and was delerious for three days, and quite sick for two weeks. My husband almost called an ambulance. I have no memory of those three days. I can’t imagine having a flu that is worse, so I hope I don’t get this one.]
The death rate for this bug is 3%, if Chinese stats are accurate. It’s 0.17% for the flu. That’s another way of saying that this bug is 17x as deadly in China as the flu stateside, for people who get infected.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html
On top of the higher fatality rate per infection, what’s bad about this bug is the fact that it may be far more infectious than the flu. So we need to pay attention to developments so we can weigh what personal measures we might need to take to lower the risk of getting infected.
It will be interesting just how much m ore we will know about this virus in only a week or two.
Agreed. It’s a good thing to read these threads to learn as much as possible about preventing infection, especially for those of us who are older.
All we can do it’s basically stay away from people who are coughing sneezing etc. Wash our hands, and use the best personal hygiene you possibly can. I wash my hands religiously and I cannot remember the last time I had a cold. The flu can be devastating there was a guy who lived near me. He was only 26 years old and actually died from the flu last fall. I immediately called my son 24 almost 25, and my daughter 20, almost 21 and said you two better get your flu shots right away. I told them the story about the young man. I hope they did get their shots, I can’t force them, but they did not get the flu. I got the flu the first year I lived here and it was awful awful awful. I couldn’t breathe I had to sleep sitting up, it was a week of pure h*ll. It developed into a bacterial infection in my lungs, and I stopped well, my husband stopped, at a doctor on the way home from his mother’s house, that’s where I got sick, in northern Quebec. I guess I just wasn’t used to the cold. Anyway the doctor gave me antibiotics for the bronchitis and I just had to ride the flu out. But as I said I wash my hands constantly and have not had a cold in years so all we can do is take every precaution and Hope oh, perhaps call the White House our senators or congressmen, and make sure that the people who have it now our quarantine and shut the borders from anyone who is coming back from China put them in immediate quarantine. And don’t let any US citizen or Canadian citizen visit China.
I wonder why these things SARS Ebola etc, always come out of China or Africa. India is equally as crowded, they have cow crap all over the place because the cows roam free is it please since they are holy. and yet nothing weird ever comes out of that country which is equally as crowded if not more than China. I honestly believe it’s because India is such a spiritual place. The Ganges River is filthy and yet people still make spiritual journeys there. I don’t think the Chinese or Africans have that same kind of power. Although I can’t judge their religion. I don’t know. But it is an interesting question. Anyone who wants to see the conditions there, rent the movie Salaam Bombay. It is excellent. I hope I got the spelling right. :-)