Swine flu edging closer

Don't you wonder when you are going to get the swine flu? It's getting closer to us every day here in England.

My daughter the 2/5ths doctor (she's completed two out of her five years of med school) works at a practice in London, and they've had three cases diagnosed. The first time it happened, everyone panicked and wanted to go home, but now my daughter says people are more blase. There's a sense of fatalism about it, and she says it's better to get the flu now before the virus mutates further.

Last Friday a case was diagnosed at my husband's work, a French bank in London. The man had flown over from Paris and spent time in the London office before being diagnosed.

Someone left work early yesterday at Nokia feeling ill so we wondered if that was our first case.

I woke up this morning to hear that the school two roads away from our house has three cases diagnosed yesterday.

Have any of you got it yet?

Swine flu parties

I thought this was an amusing article that just appeared online. It sounds really dubious that parents would arrange 'swine flu parties', doesn't it?

Parents have been warned not to take their children to "swine flu parties" in the hope they will catch the disease now and build up immunity. Skip related content Although no firm evidence has emerged of such events taking place, family website mumsnet.com has witnessed discussions over whether parents should take steps to ensure their children acquire immunity before the main flu season in the winter, when some people expect the virus to be more potent.

British Medical Association expert Dr Richard Jarvis warned against taking such an approach.

Postscript

My friend Amy Meeker in Boston reports:

Don't worry, it's not that bad! My son had it two weeks ago (it swept through the schools here--some weeks 1/4 to 1/3 of the kids were out with it). He was sick, but fairly mildly, for about 5 days, then had to stay home another 2 (7-day quarantine in schools here). I did not get it, nor have most other parents I know (just a couple of exceptions). Nobody we know has been very sick--achy, tired, sore throat, controllable fever... the worst part was the cabin fever, honest.