Gaming the Flu: Having Fun With H1N1
For the past two weeks or so, the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus – more commonly known as the swine flu – has had people all over the globe on edge. Just last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) made it clear that this was a public health event of pandemic proportions. What followed was panic on various levels – from the Twittersphere to the local school systems. For some, this might seem like the end of the world but for the folks over at Routes had something different in mind…like creating a computer game.
Originally titled as “Sneeze”, but with the onset of the swine flu, they have renamed it “Stop Swine Flu”, according to a recent New York Times article on the game. As unpleasant as it sounds, the Web based game was designed to give young people an idea of how germs spread when it comes to catching a cold (or in this case, the flu). This is a fantastic use of a simple, yet engaging way for young people to actually visualize how easy it is for colds/germs to spread – especially noting how you can get extra points for making an elderly person sick (probably the ‘twisted’ part of the game that the 8 year old from the article describes).
Along with wanting to eagerly attain the next level, I definitely have become more aware of my surroundings and how to cover my mouth/nose to prevent this from happening in real life. Now that I mention it, the CDC has put together a great page of information on how to prevent yourself from getting sick – complete with highlights of how you can use social media to get the word to others.
Go ahead, try the game out for yourself and let us know what you think!
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i always advice my kids to wear face masks when going into crowded areas. swine flu is really scary and i dont want my kids getting infected by it.
@arthritisremedy – We had a few people in our office sport a face mask for a while too.
[...] didn’t really think that this game would be the last of its kind right? Well of course not – because people are still buzzing [...]
the H1N1 or Swine Flu Virus is very scary at first but now it is well controlled by vaccines and prevention by avoiding going into places with incidence of swine flu.
H1N1 or Swine Flu is a bit scary but it a good thing to note that this virus is not that very deadly.
the H1N1 or Swine Flu virus did put our country in disarray for quite sometime, it is good to know that at least it did not cause so many deaths.
One of my sisters got infected with H1N1 or more commonly known as Swine Flu. Fortunately, she did not have very high fever and she was able to recover fast .
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My brother got infected with H1N1 or Swine Flu in Mexico. He got a mild fever and luckily he did not die.
If you look at the pandemic of 1977, when H1N1 or Swine Flu re-emerged after a 20 year absence, there is no shift in age-related mortality pattern. The 1977 “pandemic” is, of course, not considered a true pandemic by experts today, for reasons that are not entierely consistent. It certainly was an antigenic shift and not an antigenic drift. As far as I have been able to follow the current events, the most significant factor seems to have been that most people, who were severely affected, were people with other medical conditions.
i remember being scared of getting infected by H1N1 during the height of the pandemic. at least two of my classmates got infected by H1N1.