Meh. My sweeter, better, half works for a hospital group and we have been down this road more than a hundred times this summer.

Hand washing is good. Back when SARS went through here the hospitals implemented a new code. You can only enter each site from one set of doors. You can go out via many doors but even with keys you can only come in one way.

To come in that way you must pass a security check point and to pass that security check point you must wash with an alcohol based hand wash.

Opportunistic infections dropped by over 90% in the first year. Loose lips sinks ships and chapped hands save lives.

I'd lick all the doorhandles around. Best to catch it now, when you get every attention of the CDC to yourself, than when it becomes a zombie pandemy, and hospitals are flooded with the hordes of the undead.

But then I'm one of those guys who doesn't take the flu vaccine (and for the last 3 years I went through the ritual of pointing and laughing at all my vaccinated friends who caught a flu anyway, while I didn't even get a strong cold).

"I'd lick all the doorhandles around." This flu kills the younger and healthier first. Maybe not be such a good plan.

We've had a few people get swine flu in our office (over 1,000 people work there, so no knowing who it is). But there's now anti-bacterial hand gel in the toilets and by the coffee machines, and posters up everywhere about sneeze hygiene, etc.

At the same time everyone's rubbish bins have been removed, so, in theory, you have to keep snotty tissues on your desk until the end of the day when you dispose of all your rubbish - sorted into paper, cardboard, hard plastic, soft plastic, food waste, cans or metal (which is meant to include a single discarded staple or twisted paperclip!), and general rubbish at the central recycling/bin areas. In practice, everyone puts their rubbish (unsorted) into a plastic carrier hidden under their desk and then chucks it into the general rubbish at the end of the day.

There's been one case confirmed at my kids' school and they sent 2 or 3 other kids home.

I work in a computer lab with a lot of international students, and the higher-ups are changing some of our procedures. They'll help, I suppose, as long as my coworkers follow them. In actuality, it's mostly my boss and I that do any cleaning, so we'll see.

Shared keyboards and mice are worse for germs than any toilet, in my opinion.

I've been using the alcohol-based hand cleaner and making sure not to touch my eyes, etc. for years now, because I used to catch every little thing that came through the lab.

Hope all you bunnies stay well!

Well, be realistic, it isn't something that often spreads airborne. Wash your hands religiously, use hand sanitizer even, try to stop habitually rubbing your eyes and nose, and make sure that you (at least) cough into your elbow.

I'm not scoffing at this or panicking -- I just know that I have some risk factors and if I get it I might be out of commission for a couple of weeks or more. Don't need that right now.

qvantamon, the reason I started getting vaccinated was the vector factor. Sure, I didn't want to get it myself, but I was also concerned about my parents and the grandchildren. If I got it, there was a good chance they would get it too. And who would get it from them? The more people get vaccinated, the fewer vectors, and the less severe the overall flu season.

It's probably too much to hope that eventually broad vaccination will slow the evolution of the flu viruses -- at least in the immediate term. But in principle, it should.

I work in a 4 person department. We've all had the sit-down chat where we were told that if any one of us gets sick, we are to stay the fuck home. We're off campus and are pretty much going to be one of the last places to close--should schools start closing again.

Of course, we do most of our work electronically, so it's not like we're in contact with the public.

I've never gotten any flu vaccination. I likely won't this time either. (I don't work with the public, I don't go around small children or the elderly, and I don't really leave my house except to go to work.)

My friend's brother was diagnosed with it last week. He had a rough few days of it, but has been doing a lot better lately. *knocks wood* Taking precautions is always wise, but panicking is for the birds. (But not the bird flu.)

A friend of mine from church ended up in the hospital with a tube down his throat for over a month this summer from swine flu. He's in a rehab hospital now and slowly recovering. Nasty stuff.

Yeah, I think people are being too cavalier if they shrug it off by saying they never get the regular flu. This isn't the regular flu. Most people have at least nominal resistance to whatever variety comes around each season, but not to this one.

A 6 year old boy from my town died from the swine flu in the beginning of June. They always say there were "underlying conditions", but it's still enough to give me the heebie-jeebies.

Yeah, I don't get flu vaccines because I'm allergic to something in them. Both times I've gotten them, I've ended up near death's door...so even my doctor says that I should just be vigilant and avoid sick people. Which is difficult to do with a son that just started 1st grade. Children, you see, are disease ridden germ monkeys.

That said; I make a hand sanitizer for us that I've had lab tested (back when Soapy Hollow was still selling consumer products) and I'm happy to share the recipe with you, if you'd like to make it...this shouldn't chap your skin, I've used it on all the kids that float through my house.

I can also give you a recipe for a sanitizing lotion that has a nut butter base, if you'd prefer, but it's more work, since you have to do an emulsion and all that kinda fun stuff. It's not hard, it's just kinda daunting when you see the directions initially.

This is an easy, non-emulsified sanitizer though: Blend together:

2 cups aloe vera gel (100% pure, none of that weird blue stuff, or stuff with lidocaine in, or any other chemicals...just pure aloe.)

2 tablespoons 90% SD40 alcohol. Ask the pharmacist if she has perfumer's alcohol, or google it. There's a supplier out there now who is selling small amounts to people that don't have A.T.F. permits. (When you buy a lot of it, you need permits...but not under a gallon or 5 gallons or something.) You can use isopropyl, but it has a distinctive smell, and is not as effective.

1 tsp peppermint or eucalyptus oil
1-2 tsp tea tree oil (more is better, but some people have issues with the mediciney smell.)

(I also add a little basil or rosemary oil because I think it makes the other oils blend better from a "nose" standpoint. It gives the fragrance a top, middle and bottom note. Rose, lavender, lemon, or Geranium oils also work well with this blend.)

If you're not sure where to get any of those things, let me know. I can get you hooked up.

That recipe rocks, Dejah, thanks! I'm going to have to give it a try -- sounds so much more pleasant than the store-bought stuff!

We have just (sort of) had our first case, which is surprising, because our staff are often out on the road interacting with all sorts of people. It wasn't even one of the staff that got it, but her daughter. We told her to stay home for the incubation period, disinfected her desk (and everything on and around it), told the pregnant woman who sits next to her to see her doctor and moved on.

The advice from our health department is to expect at least 20% absenteeism in every workplace and plan accordingly. So far, we haven't had anywhere near that (touch wood).