A Bad Thing

[TresCrows]

I am not sure I should post this but well, here goes.
We have heard the report recently, all of us, about the strange illnesses aboard cruise ships. We have all heard about the daily "new" disease be it Saars, or Monkeyvirus or WestNile etc. Some affect people, some animals, some plants. More than a little weird I think.
Well, OK, here is the bad thing, a terrible thing and I will not use names or specifics. A person I know had a preteen son who went with his grandparents on a cruise. The child became ill. He was hospitalized with an unknown viral illness. He unfortunately passed away from this UNKNOWN viral illness. Now, has anyone ever heard of a young, healthy, active preteen dying suddenly, litterally within a week or so from an UNKNOWN virus? This of course has a devastating impact on the family and the poor grandparents who took the child as I understand. It is a horrible thing, an unexpected thing, something no one would ever imagine.
How does this happen? I am concerned that these cruise ships are filthy from the germs and viruses deposited on them from countless people into a closed environment--the ship--with closed resources and closed venelation and who knows what in the ventelation systems/bilges. Apparently, to my knowledge, the child was the only one who came down with this illness but details are very sketchy. Just a thought but maybe now is not a good time for a vacation on one of those floating petri dishes. J

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Honey.....you couldn't DRAG me onto a plane or ship or anything else until they figure out what is going on, and maybe not even then. How awful for those grandparents. It may be that people who travel more have built up a type of resistence over time and this boy's system was pure to some of the stuff that is floating around. How awful.

 

[Egon]

Don't forget the cattlecar section of commercial flights with reduced oxygen and recirculated air.

Egon

 

[r0GuE]

I don't disagree with you.. but these ships sit in tropical waters visiting many ports of call. At least with aircraft, they go in to sub zero temps and get bombarded with higher than normal amounts of radiation. Probably not enough to help though. BOY OH BOY am I glad I no longer travel for a living. For a number of years, I spent 100 plus days traveling world wide.
Y U K !!!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Is it a new phenomina, Absolutely NOT.
Your assessment of the filth factor is on the money. Turnaround time on these ships does NOT allow for sanitation, and only minimal cleaning is done.
How does a pre teen, who should have been in good health presumably, die from a viral infection? Sadly, the overuse of antibiotics across society is a major contributing factor, and more sadly, kids today are far less resiliant to diseases than we were 50 years ago, thanks to overuse of antibiotics, and misuse of medications to "cure" childhood diseases that ran their course and left antibodys in prior generations.
All of that said, the reality is NO virus has ever been defeated by medicine, be it the common cold, AIDS, or any other virus.

 

[cowboydoc]

Now, has anyone ever heard of a young, healthy, active preteen dying suddenly, litterally within a week or so from an UNKNOWN virus?

Unfortunately I see it all the time. Healthy people die for alot of unknown reasons. Our TRUE understanding of the disease process and medicine is not what people would think. I've had kids die from complications with a wrist fracture. No known cause and no reason. It's not just cruise ships it's life.

Our bodies fight off millions of illnesses and diseases every single day. If there is a letdown in the defenses of the body bacteria or a virus can invade and kill.

 

[DocHeb]

This happens all the time, and it happened all the time 50 years ago - you just didn't hear about it.

Nowadays, there are a few things that are different. First off, world travel is exposing people to new areas of the world, and the traveler may carry illnesses back to entire communities that have no prior exposure/immunity.

Another current-day difference is that we hear about all this stuff because of the immediacy of the world's media and the Internet. A respiratory flu from China makes our news without any cases occuring in our country. Fifty years ago, we might not have known what was happening in the next county, much less country. At the same time, 50 years ago the medical community wouldn't have been able to identify the new virus and establish contagion patterns within a 3 month period, allowing for effective isolation/quarantine. That would have been impossible 50 years ago.

Viruses are not treated with antibiotics - their use makes no difference on viral illnesses. There are really very few treatment options for viruses once you become infected, and most childhood diseases do run their course on their own and the child recovers. Several viral diseases that have been essentially conquered in the US are Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Polio, and Smallpox. These viruses have been effectively controlled by vaccination programs, and the only places they are not eliminated are where immunizations haven't been provided (either through ignorance or stupidity).

Too bad it's not like 50 years ago, however. Life was great in them "good-ole-days". Whatever didn't kill you, made you stronger. Back then, men were men, the strong didn't need antibiotics to survive, and the weak just died - all the better for the human gene pool (insert contemptuously sarcastic icon here!). Of course, the life expectancy was ~18% lower, but who's countin'?

I'm sorry to hear about the child's untimely death. One of the saddest things is for a parent to outlive a child.

I am also a reluctant flier, and the idea of a cruise ship is not appealing to me.

 

[GreenMtnMan]

I have a theory that peoples immune systems are far weaker than they used to be because of all the sanitation we practice these days. We close our houses up and filter the air, we use antibiotic soaps and household cleaners, our clothes are washed in hot water and bleach, we take baths or showers once or twice a day, our dishes are washed and sanitized between meals, doctors seem to give out antibiotics like candy, etc, etc. The lack of exposure to germs and bacteria makes our immune systems as out of shape as the rest of our bodies (myself included). When doctors give us antibiotics our immune systems don't have to work as hard to heal us - heck, maybe our immune systems are just lazy these days. Parents often don't even let their kids get dirty anymore, which probably stunts the development of their immune systems.

Anyway, that's my theory. It won't stop me from taking cruises though.

 

[BigDave]

Flying is not that bad, I make about 20-25 round-trips each year, many with connections. I don't seem to get sick anymore frequently than my co-workers who don't travel.

P.S. I'm in Texas right now, New Hampshire last week...the weather was alot more pleasant in N.H. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[DocHeb]

If that's true they should make immune globulin from the blood of Emergency Room Personel. There's no end to the crud we're exposed to /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif, and it isn't from playing in the dirt too much!