#Mexico and WHO move to higher levels of alert as flu spreads
4943 Dead, 76 since 1/20/09
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Mexico May Isolate Patients With Deadly Swine Flu Strain
Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters
People wear masks while riding a metro in Mexico City Saturday.
By MARC LACEY and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: April 25, 2009
MEXICO CITY —President Felipe Calderón published an order Saturday that
would give his government extraordinary powers to address a deadly flu
epidemic, including isolating those affected by the rare virus,
inspecting their homes and ordering the closure of any public events that
might result in more infection.
The government has already taken steps to try to control the swine flu
outbreak that has killed as many as 68 people and infected possibly 1,000
more. Since Friday, officials have canceled hundreds of public events and
closed schools for millions of students in and around the capital.
"My government will not delay one minute to take all the necessary
measures to deal with this epidemic," Mr. Calderón said in Oaxaca State
during the opening of a new hospital, which he said will set aside an
area for anyone who might be affected by the new swine flu strain.
But despite government efforts, alarm has continued to grow and on
Saturday, another 24 suspected cases of the flu were reported in the
city, according to The Associated Press. The decree published Saturday
says Mr. Calderón as the authority to invoke the new powers whenever the
situation warrants.
Early Saturday, officials said they were considering keeping schools here
closed into next week, after a one-day closure Friday, and they announced
that two soccer matches scheduled for Sunday would be played without
spectators.
Mexico’s health minister, José Ángel Córdova, has said the country is
dealing with “a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic
that is so far controllable.” He said the virus had mutated from pigs and
had at some point been transmitted to humans.
The new strain contains gene sequences from North American and Eurasian
swine flus, North American bird flu and North American human flu, said
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A similar virus has been
found in the American Southwest, where officials have reported eight
nonfatal cases.
Most of Mexico’s dead were young, healthy adults, and none were over 60
or under 3 years old, the World Health Organization said. That alarms
health officials because seasonal flus cause most of their deaths among
infants and bedridden elderly people, but pandemic flus — like the 1918
Spanish flu, and the 1957 and 1968 pandemics — often strike young,
healthy people the hardest.
Mexican officials have been urging people to avoid large gatherings and
to refrain from shaking hands or greeting women with a kiss on the right
cheek, as is common in Mexico.
On Friday, Mexico City closed museums and other cultural venues, and
advised people not to attend movies or public events. Seven million
students, from kindergartners to college students, were kept from classes
in Mexico City and the neighboring State of Mexico on Friday, in what
news organizations called the first citywide closing of schools since a
powerful earthquake in 1985.
Because of the situation, the World Health Organization planned to
consider raising the world pandemic flu alert to 4 from 3. Such a high
level of alert — meaning that sustained human-to-human transmission of a
new virus has been detected — has not been reached in recent years, even
with the H5N1 avian flu circulating in Asia and Egypt, and would “really
raise the hackles of everyone around the world,” said Dr. Robert G.
Webster, a flu virus expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in
Memphis.
Mexico’s flu season is usually over by now, but health officials have
noticed a significant spike in flu cases since mid-March. The W.H.O. said
there had been 800 cases in Mexico in recent weeks, 60 of them fatal, of
a flulike illness that appeared to be more serious than the regular
seasonal flu. Mr. Córdova said Friday that there were 1,004 possible
cases.
Still, only a small number have been confirmed as cases of the new H1N1
swine flu, according to Gregory Hartl, a W.H.O. spokesman. Mexican
authorities confirmed 16 deaths from swine flu and said 45 others were
under investigation, most of them in the Mexico City area. The C.D.C.
said that eight nonfatal cases had been confirmed in the United States,
and that it had sent teams to California and Texas to investigate.
“We are worried,” said Dr. Richard Besser, the acting head of the C.D.C.
“We don’t know if this will lead to the next pandemic, but we will be
monitoring it and taking it seriously.”
Marc Lacey reported from Mexico City, and Donald G. McNeil Jr. from New
York. Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa.
--
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the
entrails of the last priest.” -Dennis Diderot Pay your taxes so the
rich don't have to. Atheist #2211
David Moffitt
"4943 Dead, 76 since 1/20/09" <ze...@finestplanet.com> wrote in message
news:wp-dnZwSUaSYDW7U...@posted.carinet...
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/americas/26mexico.html?ref=global-
> home
>
> Mexico May Isolate Patients With Deadly Swine Flu Strain
> Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters
Another reason to create a mine field no man zone on our southern border.
4957 Dead, 90 since 1/20/09
> "4943 Dead, 76 since 1/20/09" <ze...@finestplanet.com> wrote in message
> news:wp-dnZwSUaSYDW7U...@posted.carinet...
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/americas/26mexico.html?
ref=global-
>> home
>>
>> Mexico May Isolate Patients With Deadly Swine Flu Strain Jorge Dan
>> Lopez/Reuters
>
> Another reason to create a mine field no man zone on our southern
> border.
I see it has broken out in New York.
Didn't know you were a Canadian, Dave.
Billary/2009
>
> - Show quoted text -
A bioterror attack by the well financed drug gangs of Mexico cannot be
ruled out.
Mitchell Holman
news:9c15ee05-d0fd-4459...@a5g2000pre.googlegroups.com:
>
>
> A bioterror attack by the well financed drug gangs of Mexico cannot be
> ruled out.
>
Terrorism is a political tactic. Drug gangs don't care about
politics, they just want money.
4957 Dead, 90 since 1/20/09
Billary's mother was frightened by a terrorist. He's got a complex.
Bugman
"B1ackwater" <b...@barrk.net> wrote in message
news:2em7v4pc8t7m3hffl...@4ax.com...
> Do you TRUST Mexico to deal with this nasty new flu
> properly ???
>
> When SARS threatened to become epidemic in China, the
> authorities locked-down entire towns and said "If you
> come out, you'll get shot".
>
> Mexico can't/won't do that.
>
They already canceled and banned all public gatherings.