The World Health Organization has raised the alert level to 5 which is basically a declaration that a pandemic is imminent. 159 people have already been reported to have died from th Mexican Flu in Mexico, which is where the virus supposedly originated.
A 22 month old baby died in a Houston area hospital today. The baby was in Houston after being in Mexico City. Some people are wondering if the US government has not acted swiftly enough to contain the virus, and if it is too late to close the Mexican borders to contain the virus.
Egypt has ordered the killing of ALL of the pigs that are in the country. This is an interesting move, considering that the virus is not spread from pigs.
30 Marines in California were quarantined after one of their associates was diagnosed with the Mexican flu.
Current reports are putting the incubation period of the Mexican flu at four or five days. The incubation period for children can be as long as 10 days. It is during this time that the body is fighting the virus.
In an AP news article titled, “in flu crisis, US has planned for the worse” here, the authors go on to write “The worst case scenario, according to U.S. government planners: Two million dead. Hospitals overwhelmed. Schools closed. Swaths of empty seats at baseball stadiums and houses of worship. An economic recovery snuffed out.”
They also go on to say, “If a pandemic strikes, the government estimates that nearly 10 million patients would have to be admitted to the hospital, and nearly 1.5 million would need intensive care. About 750,000 would need the help of mechanical ventilators to keep breathing. No one would be immune from the consequences, even those who don’t get sick, according to worst-case exercises run by local and national agencies.”
This is a huge varying difference from what government officials have been saying regarding this near pandemic. Government officials are still downplaying the significance of it all, while not taking the same preventative measures that other countries which are oceans away have taken.
The BBC has a section on their website titled “Swine Flu: Your Experiences”, which could be perhaps one of the best ways for us common people to get a feel for what is really happening. Below are some of the comments on the page:
From Doctor Antonio Chavez,
There is a sense of chaos in the other hospitals and we do not know what to do. Staff are starting to leave and many are opting to retire or apply for holidays. The truth is that mortality is even higher than what is being reported by the authorities, at least in the hospital where I work it. It is killing three to four patients daily, and it has been going on for more than three weeks. It is a shame and there is great fear here. Increasingly younger patients aged 20 to 30 years are dying before our helpless eyes and there is great sadness among health professionals here.
Scientists say that the Mexican Flu vaccine is months away. One question that we have is, if they get a working vaccine, is it effective if the virus mutates?
China Forces Dozens of Mexican Travelers Into Quarantine
By ANDREW BROWNE
BEIJING — The A/H1N1 flu outbreak is leading to a potential diplomatic row between China and Mexico, as Chinese health authorities round up and quarantine scores of Mexicans — only one of whom is thus far reported to be sick — as they fly in on business and holiday trips.
Mexico’s foreign minister said Mexican citizens with no signs of infection had been isolated in “unacceptable conditions” in China. Patricia Espinosa told a news conference Saturday that such measures were “discriminatory and ungrounded” and that the government is advising Mexicans to stay away from China.
She also criticized four Latin American countries — Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Cuba — for suspending flights coming from Mexico against the recommendation of the World Health Organization.
![[China flu]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-DP392_chinaf_D_20090503194524.jpg)
AFP/Getty Images
A Chinese security guard watches as Mexican ambassador Jorge Guajardo waits to enter a sealed-off hotel where Mexican nationals are being held under quarantine in Beijing on May 3.
More than 70 Mexicans are in isolation around China, according to Mexican officials, and that number is rising as Mexican travelers call in to their embassy to report their plight.
China has been rounding up all travelers aboard an AeroMéxico flight that arrived Thursday in Shanghai from Mexico with a 25-year-old Mexican man, who is now ill with human swine flu in Hong Kong. He is the only known Mexican sufferer in China to date. However, Mexicans on other flights say they have been singled out for harsh treatment.
Gustavo Carrillo, a 36-year-old manager of a Mexican technology company in China who lives in Beijing, was taken off his Continental Airlines plane Saturday and rushed into quarantine at a Beijing hotel. He had traveled to the U.S. from China on a business trip and hadn’t visited Mexico.
Mr. Carrillo said health officials took the temperatures of other passengers after the plane landed, but didn’t check his after they saw his Mexican passport. Instead, they led him down the aisle past gawking passengers. “It was embarrassing and humiliating,” he said.
Mexicans who were on the flight to Shanghai with the 25-year-old flu victim complain about how China has enforced its quarantine, offering little information and only basic medical testing. Among them is a family of five, including three young children, who transited to Beijing. They were roused from their hotel room in the Chinese capital in the early hours of Saturday and whisked to an infectious diseases hospital. There, according to the father, Carlos Doormann, AeroMéxico’s finance director, they were isolated in a room with bloodstained sheets and what appeared to be mucus smeared on the walls.
“I’m frustrated and sad,” said Mr. Doormann, whose family has since been moved to the nearby Guo Men Hotel on the outskirts of the Chinese capital, where they are in quarantine along with five other Mexican nationals, including Mr. Carrillo.
According to accounts from Mexicans in the hotel, Mexican travelers arriving on various flights from Mexico and the U.S. were singled out by health officials who boarded the aircraft wearing white protective suits, masks and rubber gloves. They led away Mexican passport holders. Several travelers said Chinese television camera crews surprised them at the doors of their aircraft as they emerged. They said the filming continued through the windows of an isolation ward at the Beijing Ditan infectious diseases hospital.
“We felt like we were in a zoo,” said Angel Yamil Silum, a 27-year-old business student, who arrived in Beijing with his girlfriend Saturday en route to Bangkok for a holiday, and ended up at Ditan and then the Guo Men Hotel.
Chinese authorities allowed Mexico’s ambassador to China, Jorge Guajardo, to enter the hotel on Sunday but refused him permission to see the quarantined Mexicans or to call up to their rooms, Mexican officials said. The embassy is shuttling soft drinks, pizzas and other Western food to the hotel along with CDs, toys for the children and other entertainment.
Hong Kong also has moved aggressively on quarantines. The Hong Kong government said no new cases of A/H1N1 flu have been found since the discovery of the 25-year-old Mexican traveler. The Hong Kong government’s approach has won plaudits within the territory, where memories linger of the confusion caused by an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003. Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the WHO’s Western Pacific office in Manila, Philippines, said that although the WHO didn’t have a policy specifically on the kind of quarantine used in Hong Kong, “in general we support any legal measures that reduce the risk of community transmission.”
Chinese officials deny that Mexicans are being unfairly targeted. “There is no discrimination at all,” said Zhang Jianshu, head of the news office at the Beijing Health Bureau. “We treat all people the same,” he said, adding that there are many Chinese passengers in isolation.
A WHO spokesman said the agency has said that different countries can have different approaches based on their own risk assessment.
China’s government was widely blamed for a slow and ineffective initial response to SARS in 2003 and appears eager to demonstrate to the Chinese public that it is taking the threat more seriously this time.
The Mexican guests at the Guo Men Hotel have had no contact with Chinese officials, except health workers, and have no idea how long they will have to stay. “We’re held hostage here,” said Mr. Doormann. Twice each day, nurses leave thermometers outside their rooms. No other medical testing is carried out.
Myrna Elisa Berlanga Morales, a 31-year-old administrative assistant from Mexico City, arrived in Beijing on the Continental flight on Saturday with two American friends. She asked why Chinese consular officials in Mexico issued her and other Mexicans visas when they were heading straight into quarantine in China. “They could have warned me,” she said.
Her friends had told her that her holiday in China “would be the most unforgettable 15 days of my life.” She added: “Now I believe them.”
CDC chart wrong; number of confirmed swine flu cases in Louisiana remains at 7
by The Associated Press
Monday May 04, 2009, 11:23 AM
NEW ORLEANS — State health officials say the number of confirmed swine flu cases in Louisiana remains at seven — and not 14, as shown in a chart on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site.
Department of Health and Hospitals spokeswoman Lauren Mendes says officials have confirmed with the CDC that it was a reporting error. She says they’re still trying to figure out how it happened.
Miguel Angel Lezana, Mexico’s chief epidemiologist, was dicussing with reporters on Wednesday that he felt that the presence of Eurasian swine flu genes in the virus makes it unlikely that it originated in a Mexican pig farm. He also accused the World Health Organization of being slow to respond to the country’s warning about a health crisis that turned into a global Mexican flu scare.
Vice President Joe Biden made some statements Thursday morning on the “Today” show that seem to have riled up New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. On the “Today” show Biden stated, “I would tell members of my family — and I have — that I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now.”
“I would not be at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway. From my perspective, it relates to is mitigation. If you’re out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft, a closed container, closed car, a closed classroom, it’s a different thing,” Biden said.
“It appears that the Vice president is attempting to instill fear and panic in the people, not instilling much confidence and calm at all”, a political commenter stated. “If his intention was to let people know just to be careful, he went about it the wrong way. It seems to me that the Vice President is implying to close down all private and public facilities until this blows over.”
Mayor Bloomberg rode the subway in a direct snub to the Vice President.
Thinking Man News has provided below some definitions of terms currently being thrown around, source cbc canada.
Epidemic: A disease that occurs in an unusually high number of individuals in a community at the same time. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says that to epidemiologists the terms “epidemic” and “outbreak” basically mean the same thing, and “outbreak” is often used to avoid sensationalism. The World Health Organization (WHO) says, “A disease outbreak is the occurrence of cases of disease in excess of what would normally be expected in a defined community, geographical area or season. An outbreak may occur in a restricted geographical area, or may extend over several countries. It may last for a few days or weeks, or for several years.” SARS was considered an epidemic in Canada.
Pandemic: A very widespread, often global, disease. According to the World Health Organization, “An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus appears against which the human population has no immunity, resulting in epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illness.”
Endemic: A disease that is constantly present, usually in low numbers in a population.