Fun with H1N1

I decided a few days ago that I need to start a blog and what better way to begin than to post about what I just found out from the doctor! I have H1N1, for those of you who do not know what H1N1 is you can read this. Yesterday I was just a very sick man, and yes I am aware of how that sounds, but today I have an almost excommunicated like status, with all my friends and family concerned yet with a clause of fear.

I remember when the doctor first said to me, ‘Jordan, it looks like you have H1N1,’ I was in a little bit of shock for sure but then he proceeded to explain how it was just a mild case and not to be concerned. With of course the obvious awareness that if my symptoms are to increase at all I should go to emergency immediately. However I have been feeling a little bit better everyday and hopefully will continue to do so. After speaking with my parents, my friends and my girlfriend who was not happy with me at all, I began to think about their reactions and what it is that I have. One half of me was thinking, ‘holy crap! I have swine flu!’ while the other half was thinking, ‘don’t worry, you’ll be fine it’s just the flu.’ My close friends and family were of course all concerned, as they damn well should be, but at the same time I could hear a: i-fear-for-you-but-you’re-on-your-own sort of tone in their voices. Why was that?

When I got home I began to do some research on H1N1. What the symptoms are, how many people have been affected and what the death rate in North America has been. Much to my surprise H1N1 has been around for quite some time, originating in the 1918 as the Spanish Flu. In just one year it managed to wipe out 50 – 100 million people worldwide in just one year. It then remerged as the Russian Flu in the 1940’s and then again as bird flu or avian flu in the beginning of this decade. I can see why there has been so much fear about this flu given the death rate of the Spanish Flu. However in 2006 over roughly half of all flu infections were H1N1 and there was not a high death rate in North America. This says to me it’s just more media hype, but after digging for a bit longer I found that the death rate in 2009 soared in the Americas alone to 2,625. In fact the provincial Centre for Disease Control in BC just released the epidemiology for the virus

So now I am actually worried about this. I have to be careful not to mix this virus with any other for fear of mutating H1N1. I also have to be careful not to be close to other people ( people I care about anyways… no j/k ) in case I pass it on to them. I know that I’ve already given it to two other people in my life and neither of them are happy about it. It is a strange feeling though being in an almost quarantined like status, whereby everyone you know tries to avoid you at all costs. Brings back old memories….