H1N1 (Swine) Flu and Your Dojo

**ChaShu** · 2nd May 2009, 04:18 AM

With H1N1 concerns in the public, how are your dojos handling it? Are you recommending that students who feel sick or are recently coming from an affected area hold off on coming to keiko? Have any of you sent out any notices?

**JSchmidt** · 2nd May 2009, 04:25 AM

Originally Posted by ChaShu

With H1N1 concerns in the public, how are your dojos handling it? Are you recommending that students who feel sick or are recently coming from an affected area hold off on coming to keiko? Have any of you sent out any notices?

Doom! Dooooooom! Doooooooooooooom!

Not over-reacting unlike most of the media would be a good place to start.

**Bokushingu** · 2nd May 2009, 04:33 AM

The problem is the media has really messed this up. soo much false or assumed information put out by the media that people don't understand how contracting the flu works.

But the basic rule with cold & flu like symptoms are stay in bed, fluids & don't go popping antibiotics. For me, I just take tylenol cold/flu medicine. Sneeze or cough into your elbow.

Hand washing, not touching your face(rubbing your eyes, picking your nose), not using public utilities like phones, Atms, etc... use automactic doors instead of touching doorknobs. get an adequate amount of sleep & eat healhty--this keeps the immune system strong. allow your sick friends to rest & have quiet time.

**ChaShu** · 2nd May 2009, 04:35 AM

I think the concern is the (unfortunately) flying saliva during keiko...

**MikeW** · 2nd May 2009, 04:44 AM

We haven't put any rules in effect. Not really all that concerned myself but we always have told people (in general) not to come to practice if they are feeling bad.

**Masahiro** · 2nd May 2009, 04:44 AM

Originally Posted by JSchmidt

Doom! Dooooooom! Doooooooooooooom!

Not over-reacting unlike most of the media would be a good place to start.

hahahahaha, agreed! my sentiments exactly.

**Neil Gendzwill** · 2nd May 2009, 04:47 AM

Here is a simple test to determine if you have swine flu. Hope it helps you and your dojo make this complicated decision.

**Wookiesmurf** · 2nd May 2009, 04:51 AM

And another one: http://doihaveswineflu.org/

**futabachan** · 2nd May 2009, 06:40 AM

A naginata sempai of mine has her parents scheduled to fly in from Japan next weekend for her graduation. She got a panicked call from them; apparently, the Japanese media are hyping the entire North American continent as a death trap right now. She managed to calm them down and convince them to still come.

**Neil Gendzwill** · 2nd May 2009, 07:01 AM

Yeah, we had the same problem during the SARS scare. We're 3000 km from Toronto but people didn't want to fly here.

**JByrd** · 2nd May 2009, 07:16 AM

Originally Posted by JSchmidt

Doom! Dooooooom! Doooooooooooooom!

Originally Posted by JSchmidt

Not over-reacting unlike most of the media would be a good place to start.

It would be unfortunate if fatigue from too much overblown news coverage makes people less wary than they should be. Previous deadly flu pandemics came in waves, and the virus certainly could come back in a nastier form. The current virus appears to not have some key characteristics of the 1918 strain, but it is jumping from person to person, and it's virulence could change. It's kind of scary to realize that a person with two different flu virus infections at once is a laboratory for gene-swapping between the two strains. I'm less than certain we've dodged the bullet quite yet.

**Raffa** · 2nd May 2009, 07:36 AM

Not a single case in Italy....yet....

**Nanie** · 22nd May 2009, 12:32 AM

Bit late to reply but...

Why worry about it? Seriously. How many people have died from it so far? Not very many. I think US still has only 2.

The swine flu symptoms are more mild than the symptoms of the regular flu. Also, 7 people die every hour from the regular flu versus the 2 that have died total from the swine flu.

So, imho, the swine flu should be handled just like the regular flu in people's attitudes towards it.