Current mood:

worried

H1N1 and winged piggies
I know - it's in the millions in the US. And the death toll is relatively small, thank heavens. But it's about to impact Southern Africa. And I think that may make Mexico look healthy. Our health ministry says its all under control - ooh look another winged pig flutters past... spreading disease! Which is why official numbers jumped from IIRC 8 on Friday to 29 by Sunday. Real figures (served without flying pork) are likely to somewhat higher, especially as the latest case was an athlete from Zimbabwe - WHO HAD NOT BEEN TO THE HIGH INFECTION SPOTS - like the US or UK, or Mexico. Ergo. H1N1 is on the loose in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe doesn't HAVE a functional healthcare system (our public one is a train-wreck, but our private healthcare - while devilishly exploitatively expensive is 3rd best in the world). The people are wracked with malnutrition, and AIDS is rampant. (here not so much malnurition but still very high HIV + rates. True figures as I've said before are hard to find but somewhere between 10-30% The CIA world factbook estmates for 2007 as 5.7 million people. It will be very relevant to see how well immunocompromised people cope. I hope it'll only affect fatally the badly compromised.

I am - of course - worried for my family. My nephew has cf and is very vulnerable for that reason. But I am also worried for this country and those around it.