Swine flu: Clinically, this is a virus of extremes

SHOOT: What no one seems to understand is that this virus has the potential to kill a perfectly healthy person. How many sicknesses do you know that you can catch in the air, that can cause you to go from being perfectly healthy to drowning in your own body fluids, unable to breath, followed by death?

And as the H1N1 virus spreads, the potential that it goes up a gear [becomes more deadly] increases for the simple reason because MORE OF THE ORGANISM is out there.

clipped from www.reuters.com "The same virus that causes manageable disruption in affluent countries will almost certainly have a devastating impact in countries with too few health facilities and staff, no regular supplies of essential medicines, little diagnostic and laboratory capacity, and vast populations with no access to safe water and sanitation," she said. "For these populations, advice such as wash your hands, call your doctor, or rush to the emergency ward will mean very little," the former Hong Kong health director stressed. "Clinically, this is a virus of extremes. It does not seem to have a middle ground," she told a WHO regional meeting in Copenhagen, according to the text of her remarks.