Mexico flu deaths raise worries of global epidemic By MARK STEVENSON - 7 minutes ago
MEXICO CITY (AP) - At least 16 people - and possibly dozens more - have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic. Mexico City closed schools across the metropolis Friday in hopes of containing the outbreak, and tougher measures were being considered.
Scientists were trying to determine if the deaths involved the same new strain of swine flu that sickened seven people in Texas and California - a disturbing disease that combines pig, bird and human viruses in a way that researchers have not seen before.
The World Health Organization counted at least 57 deaths in Mexico, but said it wasn't yet clear what flu they died from.
"We are very, very concerned," WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said. "We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human."
WHO raised its internal alert system Friday, enabling the agency to divert more money and personnel to dealing with the outbreak. "It's all hands on deck at the moment." Abraham said.
President Felipe Calderon cancelled a trip and met with his Cabinet to coordinate Mexico's response. The government has 500,000 flu vaccines and planned to administer them to health workers, the highest risk group.
There are no vaccines available for the general public in Mexico, and authorities urged people to avoid hospitals unless they had a medical emergency, since hospitals are centers of infection. They also said Mexicans should refrain from customary greetings such as shaking hands or kissing cheeks.
But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans need not avoid traveling to Mexico, as long as they take the usual precautions, such as frequent handwashing.
Mexico's Health Secretary, Jose Cordova, said only 16 of the deaths have been confirmed as the new swine flu strain, and that government laboratories were testing samples from 44 other people who died. At least 943 nationwide were sick from the suspected flu, the health department said.
Cordova said samples also were sent to the CDC to look for matches with the virus that infected seven people in Texas and California.
Cordova called it a "new, different strain ... that originally came from pigs."
Epidemiologists are particularly concerned because the only people killed so far were normally less-vulnerable young people and adults. It's possible that more vulnerable populations - infants and the aged - had been vaccinated against other strains, and that those vaccines may be providing some protection.
"We certainly have 60 deaths that we can't be sure are from the same virus, but it is probable," Cordova told MVS radio in Mexico City.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC said "at this point, we do not have any confirmations of swine influenza in Mexico" of the kind that sickened seven California and Texas residents. All seven recovered from symptoms that were like those of the regular flu, mostly involving fever, cough and sore throat, though some of the seven also experienced vomiting and diarrhea.
Scientists have long been concerned that a new flu virus could launch a pandemic, a worldwide spread of a killer disease. A new virus could evolve when different flu viruses infect a pig, a person or a bird, mingling their genetic material. The resulting hybrid could spread quickly because people would have no natural defenses against it.
The most notorious flu pandemic is thought to have killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19. Two other, less deadly flu pandemics struck in 1957 and 1968.
Nobody can predict when pandemics will happen. Scientists had been concerned about swine flu in 1976, for example, and some 40 million Americans were vaccinated. No flu pandemic ever appeared, but thousands of vaccinated people filed claims saying they'd suffered a paralyzing condition andother side effects from the shots.
In recent years, scientists have been particularly concerned about birds. There have been deaths from bird flu, mostly in Asia, but the virus has so far been unable to spread from person to person easily enough to touch off a pandemic.
Closing the schools across the metropolis of 20 million kept 6.1 million students home from day care centers through high schools, and thousands more were affected as colleges and universities closed down. Parents scrambled to juggle work and family concerns due to what local media said was the first citywide schools closure since Mexico City's devastating 1985 earthquake.
Authorities also advised capital residents not to go to work if they felt ill, and to wear surgical masks if they had to move through crowds. A wider shutdown - perhaps including shutting down government offices - was being considered.
"It is very likely that classes will be suspended for several days," Cordova said. "We will have to evaluate, and let's hope this doesn't happen, the need to restrict activity at workplaces."
Mexico's initial response in its overcrowded capital brought to mind other major outbreaks - such as when SARS hit Asia. At its peak in 2003, Beijing was the hardest-hit city in the world. Schools, cinemas and restaurants were shuttered to prevent the spread the deadly respiratory virus, and thousands of people were quarantined at home.
In March 2008, Hong Kong ordered more than a half million young students to stay home for two weeks because of a flu outbreak. It was the first such closure in Hong Kong since the outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Lillian Molina and other teachers at the Montessori's World preschool scrubbed down their empty classrooms with Clorox, soap and Lysol on Friday between fielding calls from worried parents. While the school has had no known cases among its students, Molina supported the government's decision to shutter classes, especially in preschools.
"It's great they are taking precautions," she said. "I think it's a really good idea."
Still, U.S. health officials said it's not yet a reason for alarm in the United States. The five in California and two in Texas have all recovered, and testing indicates some common antiviral medications seem to work against the virus.
Schuchat of the CDC said officials believe the new strain can spread human-to-human, which is unusual for a swine flu virus. The CDC is checking people who have been in contact with the seven confirmed U.S. cases, who all became ill between late March and mid-April.
The U.S. cases are a growing medical mystery because it's unclear how they caught the virus. The CDC said none of the seven people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other.
CDC officials described the virus as having a unique combination of gene segments not seen in people or pigs before. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.
Health officials have seen mixes of bird, pig and human virus before, but never such an intercontinental combination with more than one pig virus in the mix.
Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses that emerge from pigs. The animals are considered particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu, said Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The virus may be something completely new, or it may have been around for a while but was only detected now because of improved lab testing and disease surveillance, CDC officials said.
The virus was first detected in two children in southern California - a 10-year-old boy in San Diego County and a 9-year-old girl in neighboring Imperial County.
It's not known if the seasonal flu vaccine Americans got this winter protects against this type of virus. People should wash their hands and take other customary precautions, CDC officials said.
Associated Press Writers Maria Cheng in London, Traci Carl in Mexico City and Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, Georgia, contributed to this report.
Copyright � 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Posts: 416 | From france | Registered: Oct 2001
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Geneal
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10375
posted
Lovely, huh?
I heard on the news today that 7 of 14 samples sent to the
CDC were positive for this "new" flu.
All samples were from Mexico.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
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posted
Bizarre if you ask me. None of these people have gone near animals and are getting it from casual contact.
Posts: 770 | From USA | Registered: Jul 2006
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adamm
Unregistered
posted
Has Biowarfare written all over it IMO. There were a TON of chemtrails being sprayed here yesterday...far more than I'd ever seen before. Related? One can't help but wonder...
Well, regardless-- I certainly will not be getting any vaccines!
In related news, this was circulating last week. Only time will tell whether or not there was anything to it...
Leelee
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 19112
posted
I read about this in the Washington Post this morning. What next?
-------------------- The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King,Jr Posts: 1573 | From Maryland | Registered: Feb 2009
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Geneal
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10375
posted
Tonight on the news they are cautioning every city and town,
To review thier plans for epidemic illnesses.
Just in case.
I'd say they are probably too late.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
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Leelee
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 19112
posted
quote:Originally posted by nellypointis: Still, U.S. health officials said it's not yet a reason for alarm in the United States. The five in California and two in Texas have all recovered, and testing indicates some common antiviral medications seem to work against the virus.
This is the part that really worries me. Yes, people can recover from this disease, but first they have to be diagnosed and then treated.
What if they are turned away like so many of us have been with Lyme? Then what? We might have recovered too with timely antibiotics. We can barely get tested let alone treated.
I fear the same may happen with victims of Swine Flu.
-------------------- The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King,Jr Posts: 1573 | From Maryland | Registered: Feb 2009
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posted
One report said 16 had died and another said 60. I know I heard them correctly. They need to get their facts straight before putting them on TV!!!
I see the report above says 16.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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adamm
Unregistered
posted
And Tamiflu has been known to cause brain damage.
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
"There are no vaccines available for the general public in Mexico, and authorities urged people to avoid hospitals unless they had a medical emergency, since hospitals are centers of infection."
"They also said Mexicans should refrain from customary greetings such as shaking hands or kissing cheeks."
Good precautions... but is that enough?
`````````````````````````````````````````````````
"But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans need not avoid traveling to Mexico, as long as they take the usual precautions, such as frequent handwashing."
Is that the same CDC that is in charge of Lyme disease?
MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
boneset herb, which is helpful for some Lyme symptoms, works superbly for flu and has been used for pandemic flu in the distant past with some success (I think the 1918 pandemic, the really bad one)
Andrographis, which is used for Lyme by a lot of us, has also been used for pandemic flu in India, I can't recall which outbreak, possibly a later one from 1918 that was less virulent than the one that hit the West.
People tend to combine andrographis with eleuthero (Siberian Ginseng) for flu.
Andrographis can give some people a herx and occasionally allergic reactions for a small number of people.
All of these herbs are part of the Buhner Protocol and good to have on hand for routine colds and flu, as well as for treating some aspects of Lyme.
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
disturbedme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12346
posted
Andrographis made me herx BIG time...
This swine flu and everything else is just freaking me out...
-------------------- One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. ~ Helen Keller
My Lyme Story Posts: 2965 | From Land of Confusion (bitten in KS, moved to PA, now living in MD) | Registered: Jun 2007
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Leelee
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 19112
posted
Can someone please explain to me how one gets this particular flu?
I think my Lyme brain has taken over me the last couple of days and I can't comprehend. Am I reading correctly that it is passed person to person?
If so, why is it called swine flu? The reason I am concerned is because I live in the country and a couple of the nearby properties have a few pigs on them.
In fact about three years ago, one pig escaped and ended up in our front yard. Scared my husband to death. He was working in the garden at the time and the pig just sidled over and stared at him. He turned around, saw the pig and almost keeled over.
-------------------- The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King,Jr Posts: 1573 | From Maryland | Registered: Feb 2009
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Truthfinder
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8512
posted
I read one article that said that it was clear that this is a flu strain that was created in a lab and `escaped'. Has anyone else heard that? I must say, the combination of viruses involved does seem pretty unnatural........
Anyway, I've got my homeopathic Influenzinum 200C handy as a flu preventative if I hear of any cases in my area. Just one dose a week is recommended during times of possible exposure. Even if I do get the flu, it should be a milder case. Influenzinum can also be used for treatment. And for some reason, it is available to the public though still considered a nosode (I have no answer for that).
I've also got the homeopathic flu medicine Occillococcinum - you can get the Occillo just about anywhere OTC these days.... I can't remember if it's just for treatment or for prevention, also.
I found this in an article I read awhile back, but failed to make note of the link. In any event, Influenzinum has been used as a preventative for decades.
quote:In a documented 10 year flu study using Influenzinum as a preventive, over 8 out of 10 participants were free of flu symptoms. In this same study, 98 percent of the patients expressed a desire to continue with the preventative Influenzinum treatment.
-------------------- Tracy .... Prayers for the Lyme Community - every day at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and 9 p.m. Eastern Time � just take a few moments to say a prayer wherever you are�. Posts: 2966 | From Colorado | Registered: Dec 2005
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blinkie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14470
posted
We mix vaccines using animal cells and we wonder how these genetically altered diseases are getting to humans? It's called ignorance on the part of humans to think we can control nature. The end of the human race in my opinion, will be due to disease.
I second the poster that said the CDC is not warning americans not to travel to Mexico is a joke. But again, if there were no disease, there would be no need for the CDC, would there?
Posts: 1104 | From N.California | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
If there's a good thing about lyme, it's that our immune systems are so much in overdrive that we're much less likely than the average person to catch this flu.
Posts: 727 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by dguy: If there's a good thing about lyme, it's that our immune systems are so much in overdrive that we're much less likely than the average person to catch this flu.
Really? Newbie to Lyme here. My family all had an awful cold but I didn't catch it. Instead I was having muscle spasms and fatigue. I wondered how the Lyme disease played into it.
-------------------- Never doubt in darkness what the daylight proves to you. Posts: 418 | From Utah | Registered: Apr 2009
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Geneal
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10375
posted
From what I understand, it is the very old and very young
Who are dying from this flu.
Not the average person.
There are probably many more cases not reported as of yet.
To shut down schools, libraries, etc. seems to be a major response.
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
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nenet
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 13174
posted
quote:Originally posted by Geneal: From what I understand, it is the very old and very young
Who are dying from this flu.
Not the average person.
Strange, I read and heard from several sources that it was affecting mostly the young and adults (20s-50s?) ages, and healthy people, and NOT the very young and elderly and sickly.
They made note that it was odd for a flu to do this (but it sounds very much like the Spanish flu of 1918-1920, which took down the younger adults with good health in MUCH larger proportions).
I wonder if what I heard was wrong, or I misheard it somehow.
quote:Originally posted by dguy: If there's a good thing about lyme, it's that our immune systems are so much in overdrive that we're much less likely than the average person to catch this flu.
Really? Newbie to Lyme here. My family all had an awful cold but I didn't catch it. Instead I was having muscle spasms and fatigue. I wondered how the Lyme disease played into it.
I haven't caught a cold in 10 years. Many other lymies have report similar on this board, and that finally catching a cold is a sign of their immune system getting back to normal. If you are curious, web search about t cells, in particular th1 which we lymies tend to have in excess.
Posts: 727 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2006
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(copied here and broken up for Neuro-Lyme patients)
"The New York City health department dispatched a team of investigators to a private school in Queens on Friday after dozens of students complained of symptoms that officials believed were consistent with a strain of swine flu that has swept Mexico City.
The agency said about 75 students at St. Francis Preparatory School had complained Thursday of nausea, fever, dizziness and aches and pains. Several of the students were said to have recently traveled to Mexico, where as many as 61 people have died and possibly hundreds more have been infected in an outbreak of swine flu in recent weeks.
To control the epidemic, Mexican officials have shut museums and closed schools in and around the capital.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that eight cases have been diagnosed in the United States, six in California and two in Texas.
In New York City, health officials said that doctors and investigators were sent to St. Francis Preparatory as a precautionary measure, and that tests were being conducted in an effort to rule out swine flu as the cause of the students' symptoms.
``The health department will continue to work closely with students, parents and school officials to monitor the situation,'' the agency said in a statement."
"A new flu virus suspected of killing at least 60 people in Mexico has the potential to become a pandemic, the World Health Organization's chief says.
Margaret Chan said the outbreak was a "health emergency of international concern" and must be closely monitored.
Health experts say tests so far seem to link the illnesses in Mexico with a swine flu virus in the southern US.
Several people have also fallen ill in the US, and the authorities there are watching the situation.
A top US health official said the strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, had spread widely and could not be contained.
Ms Chan cut short a visit to the US and returned to Geneva where the WHO's emergency committee met.
--------- HAVE YOUR SAY
I work as a resident doctor in one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City and sadly, the situation is far from 'under control' - Yeny Gregorio Davila, Mexico City ---------
The committee can recommend declaring an international public health emergency and raise the global pandemic alert level - a move that could lead to travel advisories, trade restrictions and border closures.
The WHO says it does not know the full risk yet but it quoted Mrs Chan as saying that "the current events constitute a public health emergency of international concern".
It is advising all member states to be vigilant for seasonally unusual flu or pneumonia-like symptoms among their populations - particularly among young healthy adults.
Officials said most of those killed so far in Mexico were young adults - rather than more vulnerable children and the elderly.
US cases
Schools, museums and libraries have been closed across the Mexican capital's region and people are being urged to avoid shaking hands or sharing crockery.
All public events have been suspended, an official said. Two previously sold-out soccer matches were played in empty stadiums to avoid potentially spreading the virus.
The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico has recommended measures to avoid further contagion at Mass this Sunday.
Priests have been told to place communion wafers in the hands of worshippers rather than in their mouths and to suggest to the congregation that kissing or shaking hands be avoided during the service.
In the US, the authorities say about 200 children were absent from a school in the New York borough of Queens on Friday, presumed ill.
Eight of the nine specimens taken from children were determined to be probable cases of swine fever, said city health commissioner Dr Thomas Frieden.
Those samples are now being examined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
None of the 200 children had required hospital treatment and many had fully recovered, said Dr Frieden, but the school could remain closed out of "an abundance of caution".
He urged people to maintain basic hygiene, such and covering their mouths when coughing and sneezing, washing hands regularly and keeping surfaces clean.
We are not at a point where we can keep this virus in one place Anne Schuchat, CDC
Six people fell have also fallen ill in California and two in Texas - only one was treated in hospital and all have since recovered.
Health officials in Kansas have also confirmed two cases of swine flu.
CDC officials have said that with cases arising in so many communities, containment is unlikely to be feasible.
"Now that we are looking more widely, I really expect us to find more," said Anne Schuchat of the CDC.
Hopeful sign
The CDC plans to send experts to Mexico to help investigate the virus which has infected more than 1,000 people in the country.
SWINE FLU Swine flu is a respiratory disease found in pigs Human cases usually occur in those who have contact with pigs Human-to-human transmission is rare and such cases are closely monitored
Q&A: Swine flu
The BBC science editor Susan Watts says the new strain is a classic "re-assortment" - a combination feared most by those watching for the flu pandemic.
But she says possibly one hopeful sign is that, of the eight cases in the US, there has been only one requiring hospital treatment, and no deaths.
So it may turn out there is some other kind of infection at work in Mexico, as well as the new flu virus.
Swine flu is a respiratory disease which infects pigs. It does not normally infect humans, although sporadic cases do occur usually in people who have had close contact with pigs."
Marnie
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 773
posted
Once they figure out what that virus locks onto and GIVE MORE OF IT...they will prevent the resulting infection.
This was what they discovered with SARS.
The SARS virus locks onto an enzyme. They gave more of the enzyme and the virus locked onto the "excess" and didn't cause the respiratory failure.
Bb locks onto our plasminogen -> plasmin -> triggers the metalloproteinases to "pave the way".
Google: coconut oil viruses. Work for THAT virus???? Source Naturals makes capsules...I have them "on hand". It may take several.
Posts: 9424 | From Sunshine State | Registered: Mar 2001
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Alv
Unregistered
posted
I got the EMAIL from ANOTHER forum and very well educated person!
I am including this below! ------------------------------------------------
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I do believe this would be worth your while to tune in and listen too....
Feel free to pass around, post and share with others....
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My family all had an awful cold but I didn't catch it. Instead I was having muscle spasms and fatigue. 
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