What would you do in my situation?

[Dogwatcher]

One of my staff has headed over for the weekend. He was supposed to be going with his girlfriend, a teacher. SA schools have told their teachers that if they go to Melbourne for the weekend they have to automatically have a week off just in case.

[Punk Rooster]

WHUFC,
Just do whatever your partner suggests...

[MightyEagles]

I wouldn't go with my 1 year old son atm. I am sure the trip can wait a few months. Better to be safe than sorry i'd say.

What if it's a wedding or someone in the family passed away.

[Sojourner]

I have heard that if babies are breast fed that they can have some or all of her mums immunity passed on, Psyber may be able to confirm if that is true or not. I do not want to give you unnecessary worry, yet the Flu is known to be much more of a problem to children under the age of two and for those in their elderly years and you no doubt have to take that under consideration.

What surprised me about Melbourne is how quickly the number of people infected is spreading. Clearly we will have the same thing happening over here in less than a few weeks one would think anyway.

[Psyber]

I have heard that if babies are breast fed that they can have some or all of her mums immunity passed on, Psyber may be able to confirm if that is true or not.

I'm a bit rusty on the basic general medicine stuff, after being out of it so long, but, yes, antibodies the mother has can be passed on in breast milk. They don't create permanent immunity though, but are a temporary protection until the babies immune system can start producing its own in response to exposure to bacteria or virus particles - or attenuated forms thereof in vaccines.

[Felch]

I only just noticed this topic, as i was actually on my way to Melbourne on Friday, with the wife and 3 kids, all packed in together in the Ford Territory.

We went over to see and stay with my brother-in-law, who ironically works for the Victorian State government in the health department. He has been heavily involved in the swine flu situation, and his workplaces opinion is that the main reason Victoria has so many cases of swine flu is because of the amount of testing they have done. They have tested a huge amount of people over the last few weeks, many morew than SA, NSW, WA or Qld. My bro-in-law is adament that if NSW tested the same number of people as Victoria, they would have a very similar number of confirmed cases. He likened it to a state saying they have no one speeding on their roads, but also not having any cops out on the roads to catch them !!!

Did you end up going WHUFC ?

Our kids are currently in lock down at the moment, with one very grumpy wife...

[amber_fluid]

I only just noticed this topic, as i was actually on my way to Melbourne on Friday, with the wife and 3 kids, all packed in together in the Ford Territory.

We went over to see and stay with my brother-in-law, who ironically works for the Victorian State government in the health department. He has been heavily involved in the swine flu situation, and his workplaces opinion is that the main reason Victoria has so many cases of swine flu is because of the amount of testing they have done. They have tested a huge amount of people over the last few weeks, many morew than SA, NSW, WA or Qld. My bro-in-law is adament that if NSW tested the same number of people as Victoria, they would have a very similar number of confirmed cases. He likened it to a state saying they have no one speeding on their roads, but also not having any cops out on the roads to catch them !!!

Did you end up going WHUFC ?

Our kids are currently in lock down at the moment, with one very grumpy wife...

Mate, your brother-in-law may be employed by the VIC state Government but he definitely doesn't do much work for them.

[Felch]

I only just noticed this topic, as i was actually on my way to Melbourne on Friday, with the wife and 3 kids, all packed in together in the Ford Territory.

We went over to see and stay with my brother-in-law, who ironically works for the Victorian State government in the health department. He has been heavily involved in the swine flu situation, and his workplaces opinion is that the main reason Victoria has so many cases of swine flu is because of the amount of testing they have done. They have tested a huge amount of people over the last few weeks, many morew than SA, NSW, WA or Qld. My bro-in-law is adament that if NSW tested the same number of people as Victoria, they would have a very similar number of confirmed cases. He likened it to a state saying they have no one speeding on their roads, but also not having any cops out on the roads to catch them !!!

Did you end up going WHUFC ?

Our kids are currently in lock down at the moment, with one very grumpy wife...

Mate, your brother-in-law may be employed by the VIC state Government but he definitely doesn't do much work for them.

Agreed, replace 'work' with 'employed' in the above post then...

[wycbloods]

I wouldn't go with my 1 year old son atm. I am sure the trip can wait a few months. Better to be safe than sorry i'd say.

What if it's a wedding or someone in the family passed away.

thats different to what WHUFC has suggested his position is.

If it were a death or wedding i would probably go.

[JAS]

I still don't get why you're all panicking so much. It's only been fatal to a certain ethnic group and a handful of people who were already very ill and would probably have died from any viral infection.

I think you've got far more chance of getting sick or dying from the annual flu that normally does the rounds in winter...

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factshee ... /fs211/en/

In annual influenza epidemics 5-15% of the population are affected with upper respiratory tract infections. Hospitalization and deaths mainly occur in high-risk groups (elderly, chronically ill). Although difficult to assess, these annual epidemics are thought to result in between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 250 000 and 500 000 deaths every year around the world. Most deaths currently associated with influenza in industrialized countries occur among the elderly over 65 years of age.

Regards
JAS

[Q.]

Finally, a voice of reason, logic and rationality.

This has been a beat-up of massive proportions, truly a great distraction.

[Dirko]

We've had friends over from Melbourne and the kindy & school know. The kindy has requested we keep the kids away, the school has said nothing. We're probably going to give the kids another day off (had today off as our freinds didn't fly out til arvo) as they're just bloody tired from a few too many late nights.

Massive beat up IMO !!

[whufc]

thanks for all the opinions and feedback it has been extremly helpful.

After much discussion we have decided we WILL head over to Melbourne as planned on Wednesday night. We will be taking as many precuations as neccesary and hopefully have an enjoyable trip.

I have had three friends go over in the last week and none have come back infected so fingers cross the same happens for my daughter. Her grandad is excited about the visit which is only his third time seeing her.

Once agains thanks for all the discussion which has been invaluable.

[JAS]

Good for you whufc...hope you all have a fantastic trip

I'm sure grandad's joy at seeing her will make up for all your concerns.

Was only natural that you guys would have worries but hope you ca put them aside and just enjoy the trip...might be better not to watch the news too much while your there though

Regards
JAS

[Thiele]

Good to hear Whufc have a fantastic trip . I got asked at work today if had been in melbourne over the weekend, I said no

[Squawk]

We went over to see and stay with my brother-in-law, who ironically works for the Victorian State government in the health department. He has been heavily involved in the swine flu situation, and his workplaces opinion is that the main reason Victoria has so many cases of swine flu is because of the amount of testing they have done. They have tested a huge amount of people over the last few weeks, many morew than SA, NSW, WA or Qld. My bro-in-law is adament that if NSW tested the same number of people as Victoria, they would have a very similar number of confirmed cases.

That's rubbish.
For every confirmed case, the same extent of contact tracing is done. The fact is that for whatever reason, the virus has shown more evidence of confirmed community transmission in Victoria - not helped by the Pacific Dawn experience.

There is a nationally agreed clinical case definition so every jurisdiction is testing in the same circumstances. The fact is that the circumstances in Victoria are that H1N1 09 is demonstrating more prevalence in the community. That line is the one Premier Brumby is using and it is for one reason and one reason only - because Victoria do not want to have to face any significant economic consequences as would occur under a full Sustain phase. That is why they have gone to modified sustain (a new phase level they created which is outside the national plan) because it allows them to suspend resource-intensive contact tracing but NOT cancel mass gathering events.

whufc - the virulance of the virus is most prevalent amongst school children. If you still go over, Take appropriate precautions like you would for any other viral contagion, and most importantly, monitor your health afterwards.

[hearts on fire]

My mate went over Friday and came back yesterday and is now staying home from school for the next week.
Also hasn't been to any footy training or basketball game, not sure if he is going to play footy sunday though.

[Psyber]

We went over to see and stay with my brother-in-law, who ironically works for the Victorian State government in the health department. He has been heavily involved in the swine flu situation, and his workplaces opinion is that the main reason Victoria has so many cases of swine flu is because of the amount of testing they have done. They have tested a huge amount of people over the last few weeks, many morew than SA, NSW, WA or Qld. My bro-in-law is adament that if NSW tested the same number of people as Victoria, they would have a very similar number of confirmed cases. He likened it to a state saying they have no one speeding on their roads, but also not having any cops out on the roads to catch them !!!

A classic Melbourne response - no other place could possibly be better to be and if it appears so it is faked...
No one over there could believe I was choosing to leave Melbourne for Adelaide, or that so many leave for Queensland every year for that matter..

One good thing about the Swine 'Flu, it has given me an excuse to put off starting to work again.
I think I may put it off til Spring, after I've gotten back from South Africa.
[You lose your motivation to work a bit once you are no longer driven by needing the money.]

[Q.]

Psyber, what are your plans for South Africa?

[Psyber]

Psyber, what are your plans for South Africa?

I'm going with a group from the Zoological Society to Kruger, and Mokhohlolo Zoo.
The trip includes behind the scenes access not usually available to regular tourists.