Fwd: [The_Brotherhood_of_Pagans] Mexico flu deaths raise fears of global epidemic

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[The_Brotherhood_of_Pagans] Mexico flu deaths raise fears of

global epidemic

The_Brotherhood_of_Pagans <The_Brotherhood_of_Pagans

 

Mexico flu deaths raise fears of global epidemic

Unique virus connected to cases in Calif. and Texas; source still a mystery

msnbc.com news services

 

updated 6:26 p.m. CT, Fri., April 24, 2009

 

Mexico shut down schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters

across its overcrowded capital Friday in hopes of containing a swine

flu outbreak that authorities say killed at least 20 people — and

perhaps dozens more. World health authorities worried openly that the

strange new virus could become a global epidemic.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tests show

some of the Mexico victims died from the same new strain of swine flu

that sickened eight people in Texas and California. Of the 14 samples

tested from Mexico, seven were matches, said the CDC's acting director

Dr. Richard Besser.

 

Mexico put the confirmed toll at 20 dead, but 40 other fatalities were

being probed, and at least 943 nationwide were sick from the suspected

flu, the health department said.

Scientists said the virus combines genetic material from pigs, birds

and humans in a way researchers have not seen before.

 

“We are very, very concerned,” World Health Organization spokesman

Thomas Abraham said.

 

“We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human

to human,” he said. “It’s all hands on deck at the moment.”

 

President Felipe Calderon cancelled a trip and met with his Cabinet to

coordinate Mexico’s response. The government planned to administer its

remaining 500,000 vaccines from the flu season to health workers, the

highest risk group, although it is not known how effective they are on

swine flu. It said it also has enough oseltamivir, the generic name of

Tamiflu, to treat 1 million people, but the medicine will be strictly

controlled and handed out only by doctors.

 

The CDC says Tamiflu and Relenza do seem effective against the new

strain. Roche, the maker of Tamiflu, said the company is prepared to

immediately deploy a stockpile of the drug if requested. Both drugs

must be taken early, within a few days of the onset of symptoms, to be

most effective.

 

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, and authorities at Mexico City’s

international airport were questioning passengers to try to prevent

anybody with possible influenza from boarding airplanes and spreading

the disease.

 

But the CDC said Americans need not avoid traveling to Mexico, as long

as they take the usual precautions, such as frequent handwashing.

 

“We certainly have 60 deaths that we can’t be sure are from the same

virus, but it is probable,” said Health Secretary Jose Cordova. He

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.

 

All eight U.S. patients recovered from symptoms that were like those

of the regular flu, mostly involving fever, cough and sore throat,

though some of them 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.

 

40 million died in 1918 pandemic

 

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 and other 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 Mexico City, a 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.”

 

Past outbreaks

 

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 six in California and two in Texas have all

recovered, and testing indicates some common antiviral medications

seem to work against the virus.

 

New strain has swine, bird and human viruses

 

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 eight 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 eight people were in

contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And

only a few were in contact with each other.

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.

 

 

________________________________

 

 

The cases were detected under unusual circumstances. One was seen at a

Navy clinic that participates in a specialized disease detection

network, and the other was caught through a specialized surveillance

system set up in border communities, CDC officials said.

Investigators have since discovered six more cases. That includes a

father and his teenage daughter in San Diego County, a 41-year-old

woman in Imperial County who was the only person hospitalized, and two

16-year-old boys who are friends and live in Guadalupe County, Texas,

near San Antonio.

 

Puzzling cases

 

The Texas cases are especially puzzling. One of the California cases —

the 10-year-old boy — traveled to Texas early this month, but that was

to Dallas, about 270 miles northeast of San Antonio. He did not travel

to the San Antonio area, Schuchat said.

The two 16-year-olds had not traveled recently, Texas health officials said.

No details were available about the eighth victim, a child from San Diego.

 

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.

 

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 precautions, CDC officials said.

 

Antivirals ready if needed

 

Officials from the World Health Organization said on Friday that it

was prepared with " rapid containment measures " including antivirals if

needed to combat the swine flu outbreaks in Mexico and the United

States.

 

But health authorities in the two countries have the resources

required already in place and are " well equipped, " WHO spokeswoman

Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said in Geneva.

She said the United Nations agency saw no need at this point to issue

travel advisories warning travelers not to go to parts of Mexico or

the United States. WHO says it is in daily contact with U.S., Canadian

and Mexican authorities and had activated its command and control

center for acute public health events.

 

 

The WHO will convene a meeting of its Emergency Committee on

international health regulations, probably on Saturday afternoon, she

added.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30386163/

 

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