Surviving the Swine Flu Scare

Scare is over. I don't have Swine Flu. Last Tuesday I sat beside someone at an all day off-site meeting that had been exposed to Swine Flu in the states... course, this person didn't know about the exposure until the next day, and by then all of us at the off-site were already exposed. Consequently, all of us got started on Tamiflu as a precautionary measure. Per the CDC, those most vulnerable to the virus are those exposed within a 5 ft radius. Guess who sat closest to the probable exposer? "ME." At that point none of the symptoms were to show for another 3-4 days as the incubation period is about 7 days. Signs to look for.... fever, body aches, chills, sore throat, cough, possible diarrhea... basic flu like symptoms... again, it was too early to tell if any of us had H1N1 Flu (CDC put out the missive last Thursday that Swine Flu was to be referred to as H1N1 Flu).... and so, I left for the week-end with my packet of Tamiflu and my morale waaaay low. On my way out the door, I received notification that my business trip to Prague got cancelled. Had an epidemic arisen here, Egypt had been prepared to close its borders and I would've been locked out. Needless to say, I didn't have a good week-end. I didn't let family know, and I certainly wasn't going to blog about it until I knew for sure. I got up this morning to a bad start. It was Sunday. Egypt's Monday, as the national work week is Sun-Thurs. My alarm didn't go off. My SUV needed a jump start. My carpool was reaaaally late. On the way to work, our carpool got assailed by rocks, as an angry mob vented their anger on innocent pig farmers taking their "piggies to market", and our vehicle just happened to be there at the same time. And all because of the Swi---H1N1 Flu. Ahhhh... 3rd world country ignorance. Ironically, before the CDC changed the name to H1N1, Egypt was calling the Swine Flu, "Mexican Flu". By religious order, Muslims aren't allowed to touch pork. Pork is so reviled here that even a disease couldn't be named after it. Ahhhh....Middle East cultural differences. Egyptians believe that bad luck is brought on by the "evil eye". So, when was this evil eye going to stop ogling me? Fortunately, it stopped when I arrived to work. We found out that the person who was exposed to stateside H1N1 Flu tested negative; hence, all of us were negative.... and the second good news of the day..... the travel ban at work lifted!! So, 6 am tomorrow, I will be flying out to the Czech Republic sans Swine Flu. Morale restored. Evil Eye has left the building.

[Note: For up to date H1N1 Flu information, stay tune to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage here. Stay home if you or a family member is experiencing flu like symptoms, seek medical care as needed, and wash your hands frequently using soap and water.]