Swine Flu H1N1 - is it something to worry about if you are overweight or obese ?

If you happen to be in the obese group then you probably don't need to worry about anything else but maybe you should.

Swine flu seems to be picking disproportionately on the over weight. This chart was prepared by Sonia Olsen of the CDC.

Swine flu seems to be at least twice as dangerous to the overweight as to everyone else.

Swine flu seems to be on the rise up and down the coast of the USA and people are dieing. Here is the latest CDC status report. Holiday makers in China from the USA are starting to be rounded up if there is a suspicion of swine flu.

My previous post about swine flu and it looks as if swine flu will be a serious issue come the Fall.

This is what the virus looks like, very infectious but not very dangerous most of the time, but the danger is that it will mutate into something really dangerous while remaining highly infectious.

Swine Flu - something to worry about ?

Swine Flu virus - probably not worth worrying about until the summer is over.

This is what the little beauty looks like. A tryst of pig flu proteins on the outside with bird and human flu interior. 

Could it be dangerous ? For sure, humans are not going to have immunity to this new H1N1 virus until we've all had exposure to the virus. 

This H1N1  flu virus is not as dangerous as the H5N1 bird flu virus which has killed about half of the people it's infected.

H1N1 pig flu is nothing like as dangerous. The people who have died probably other other health issues at the same time. 

However H1N1 pig flu does spread easily from one person to another (if no precautions are taken) unlike the killer H5N1 which does not spread from one person to another.

In the meantime the H1N1 virus is going to keep on evolving and there is the chance that it could become much more dangerous. Another 6 months on, getting towards winter, I'll definitely get a flu shot even though I'm guessing that flu shots for winter 2009-2010 will be only weakly effective.

Why do I think that ? It's going to take at least 4 months to create a flu vacine against H1N1 pig flu. During those 4 months it's going to be Winter in the southern hemisphere and H1N1 will be spreading fast and possibly evolving even faster. So the H1N1 flu we'll see in the Fall will be quite different to the virus currently causing concern.

Stay informed on the global spread of Swine Flu with this constantly updated map.

The New England Journal of Medicine is taking H1N1 seriously - read what they have to say.

Look at video on how the world can protect itself.