Now, virtual world catches swine flu

“I had swine flu last week. I thought I was just hung over.” This is just one of the many posts that have made H1N1, or swine flu, one of the top 10 trending topics on micro-blogging site Twitter.

“I had swine flu last week. I thought I was just hung over.”

HT Image

This is just one of the many posts that have made H1N1, or swine flu, one of the top 10 trending topics on micro-blogging site Twitter.

H1N1 gets over 50 tweets a minute and is right up there with Oprah and Google Wave — the new online tool for real-time communication — in the popularity charts.

Oprah Winfrey made news by announcing she’d be going live with her talk show on October 12 while Google said it would send one lakh (100,000) invites for Wave.

It’s not just Twitter that's all abuzz with H1N1 talk. Facebook has over 500 groups and Orkut 200 communities dedicated to it.

Some of the posts make for hilarious reading.

On Orkut, Vimal D reports a Malaysian National News Agency story on ways to prevent infection. “The first recommendation is to stop engaging in gay sex and masturbation, but notes that ‘normal’ sex is ‘safe’.”

A blogger on Facebook posts: “I want to know if making out with pigs can cause swine flu... of course, hypothetically speaking.”

“Break mangta hai, swine flu bhi chalega,” tweets Singh821.

But some members who’re down with the common flu are annoyed by the looks they get. “If only I could inform all ppl that I’m sneezing/sniffling/coughing b/c sinusitis & I’m NOT contagious,” tweets ManuMystery.