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New Flu Strain Appears In the US and Mexico
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:20 PM
from the fluent-in-english-and-spanish dept.
from the fluent-in-english-and-spanish dept.
Combat Wombat writes with this excerpt from Reuters:
"A strain of flu never seen before has killed up to 60 people in Mexico and also appeared in the United States, where eight people were infected but recovered, health officials said on Friday. Mexico's government said at least 20 people have died of the flu and it may also be responsible for 40 other deaths. [The government] shut down schools and canceled major public events in Mexico City to try to prevent more deaths in the sprawling, overcrowded capital. ... Close analysis showed the disease is a mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the CDC. Humans can occasionally catch swine flu from pigs but rarely have they been known to pass it on to other people. Mexico reported 1,004 suspected cases of the new virus, including four possible cases in Mexicali on the border with California.
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Submission: New Flu strain appears in the US and Mexico H1N1 by Anonymous Coward
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US Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu 695 comments
mallumax sends word from the NYTimes that US government officials today declared a public health emergency over increasing cases of the swine flu first seen in Mexico. Here is additional coverage from CNN. From the Times: "American health officials [say]... that they had confirmed 20 cases of the disease in the United States and expected to see more as investigators fan out to track down the path of the outbreak. Other governments around the world stepped up their response to the incipient outbreak, racing to contain the infection amid reports of potential new cases from New Zealand to Hong Kong to Spain, raising concerns about the potential for a global pandemic. The cases in US looked to be similar to the deadly strain of swine flu that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico and infected 1,300 more." Reader "The man who walks in the woods" sends a link to accounts emailed to the BBC from readers in Mexico. While these are anecdotal, they do paint a picture of a more serious situation than government announcements have indicated so far.
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Delayed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Delayed (Score:5, Interesting)
Well as weird as it seems some doctors in Mexico are claiming
they are under reporting the death toll to prevent panic.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm [bbc.co.uk]
They are saying over 200 at this point, and if that is true
that would put this more on par with the 1918 pandemic.
Let's hope it is not true...
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Flu in Queens (Score:5, Informative)
Don't run -- treat it yourself. (PP & D) (Score:5, Informative)
I would guess that if a serious flu comes through, you will not be able to avoid it.
However, if I understand correctly, flu typically kills by filling the lungs up with mucus, and preventing breathing -- a fatal pneumonia, if you will. However, such a symptom is entirely (and easily) treatable. The treatment is called PP &D, and it takes about 20 minutes to drain the lungs. In other words, in the time it would take the ambulance to get you and get you to the hospital, you could be in good enough condition to walk out the door.
I've done this on my kid, and it does greatly improve breathing function.
Therefore, my advice would be to simply be prepared to do PP & D on others, the price being that they learn to do it, and do PP & D on still others in a 2:1 ratio until the need is gone. That way, if you do get sick, you will have someone to do it on you, and the flu wonâ(TM)t be fatal.
Here are two good sources on how to to PP&D.
http://www.phoenixchildrens.com/emily-center/child-health-topics/handouts/CPT-55b.pdf
http://www.questdiagnostics.com/kbase/as/ug1720/how.htm
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Re:Don't run -- treat it yourself. (PP & D) (Score:4, Informative)
Speaking from my nursing background here (20+ years as Registered Nurse in Intensive Care, Emergency Room, and medical wards).
Postural drainage and percussion (PD&P) are appropriate when the "fluid in the lungs" is in the bronchial tree, as in cystic fibrosis and some kinds of bronchitis. It will do no good in pneumonia and may cause greater harm.
In pneumonia the dangerous fluid is not within the lumens of the bronchial tree where it could be coughed out; it is the walls of the tree that are swollen with excess interstitial fluid that is the danger. The swelling increases the distance between the air sacs and blood vessels, and as it progresses, it collapses the air sacs. So you don't have gobs of stuff blocking the lungs; you've got less working lung area.
If you start to come down with the flu a good plan would be to avoid exercise or any activity that would increase your O2 demand and your CO2 production. Spend your awake time mostly sitting, and rest in a semi-recumbent position rather than flat in bed. Do deep breathing exercises every half hour or so to help keep airways open. Go with sedentary activities like reading, watching tv, working on improving your slashdot karma, and so on. And remember that the hardware of your mind is now compromised by the illness, so you are not as sharp as usual, your judgment may be bad, and there are going to be more bugs in your code and logic.
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For those who want to save time: (Score:4, Insightful)
On the plus side, it's not resistant to Tamiflu... yet. Given that strains of Tamiflu-resistant human flu are turning up, I wouldn't be surprised to see this one learn to dodge bullets as well.
That's why this strain is seen as a potential pandemic.
Re:For those who want to save time: (Score:5, Funny)
[...] I wouldn't be surprised to see this one learn to dodge bullets as well.
I'm afraid that once it has evolved this far, it won't have to.
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Young Adults (Score:5, Interesting)
I thought the reason it was so bad is because many of the dead are young adults. That's one of the milestones of a really dangerous pandemic, right?
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I thought the reason it was so bad is because many of the dead are coming back to life. That's one of the milestones of a really dangerous pandemic, right?
Fixed that for you.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Not always, but in flu the deadly strains (at least, Spanish flu and the strain everyone was afraid would shift to humans) cause an overreaction by the immune system. Young adults, whose immune systems are in top shape, get screwed up bad.
Re:Young Adults (Score:5, Informative)
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Some people actually have other sources of information other than Slashdot, unbelievable as you may find that.
There are these things called newspapers. Some of them are even online, updated in real time throughout the day and night.
Try it out, you may like it.
Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:4, Interesting)
Before this spreads unnecessarily, this would be an ideal time to limit air flight in and out of the Americas.
We as a species are putting everyone at risk by allowing unlimited, unrestricted, near-instantaneous travel from point to point on the globe.
Shipping cargo can continue of course; if the crew get sick en route, they can always be quarantined off the coast of wherever they arrive.
Re:Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:5, Funny)
Goddamnit, Madagascar has already shut it's borders.
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Re:Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:4, Informative)
Beat me to it. This is a reference to the game Pandemic 2 for those who don't get it. I've been so frustrated by Madagascar that I actually name my diseases after it. Madagascan Insanity Pox is one of the few that actually made it.
http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/fullscreen.php?game=Pandemic-2 [crazymonkeygames.com]
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Re:Cancel Air Flight (Score:3, Funny)
WTF 'near-instantaneous'? You must have never flown on anything but private learjets.
Re:Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:5, Insightful)
/sigh. I was hoping to be able to stick with Mac virus jokes but....
No.
At this point in the epidemic cycle, that would be a premature panic reaction. Panic always and inevitably causes more harm than good.
There's a number of factors that influence decision making to limit the spread of any disease. Variables that need to be filled in before far reaching decisions are made include the transmissability and virulence of this particular strain. In other words, things that not yet been established include the number people exposed, the number of people who were exposed who developed symptoms, the number of people who developed symptons that were severe enough to seek medical attention and the number of those who died.
Some of those, you can make a guess at but you won't know with any reasonable degree of certainty for a while. Meanwhile, the public health system is keeping an eye out for new cases. Between the two, you continue to develop your model, which helps you determine just what the potential is.
Now, to grossly oversimplify and at the risk of sounding a little callous here, seriously sick people will show up at the hospital, clinic, etc. There's a number of reasons that they might not, but you can bet that if a young adult gets sick of the flu and dies, someone's going to hear about it. With low awareness, this is the group that you catch, which is not okay because there are transmissive people out there wandering around infecting other people.
The other side of that spectrum is just as bad and in the professional opinion many, can be worse. The moment that the authoritative reaction is severe, such as shutting down transportation systems, the population panics. Suddenly, you have every person with a cough and a runny nose swamping the public health system. Add to the fact that it's now SPRING and the beginning of allergy season in the southern US, and you've just made the difficult job of outbreak investigation and outbreak control much more difficult by several orders of magnitude.
The response has to be measured in a way to balance numerous factors so NO. Cancelling ar flights at this juncture would be an example of a supremely BAD idea.
Now, the moment you KNOW that it's spreading faster than you have the capacity to contain and control, THEN you take the drastic step of public alerts limited quarantine. Before then, it's just irresponsible.
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It's already too widespread to contain (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN25473389 [reuters.com]
An unusual new flu virus has spread widely and cannot be contained, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Saturday.
"It is clear that this is widespread. And that is why we have let you know that we cannot contain the spr
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Why stop there? Not that it would stop there. Maybe the politicians and airlines are better elsewhere in the world. (Actually.. Japan was quite nice all around. Little miffed to have my fingerprints taken on entry, but that was about my only complaint) But the US ones suck. They'll put on security theatre and overstep all bounds of reason and logic to put on the show. After all, any sick person is a potential threat to the rest of humanity. Let us all pass laws forcing airlines to perform in-depth health ch
Re:Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:5, Funny)
if you see any flying pigs then you know we're in trouble.
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Re:Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:4, Funny)
if you see any flying pigs then you know we're in trouble.
I think that is less likely to happen as airlines are making obese passengers pay for two seats.
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Re:Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:5, Funny)
As a citizen of Colorado I have the right to travel freely in all of the United States with no permission, whatever.
Unless the authorities institute a general quarantine. In which case your libertarian ass will be staying put.
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Re:Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:4, Insightful)
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finally! (Score:3, Funny)
news that will make people crap their pants!
Artificially Created Strain of H1N1? (Score:5, Informative)
New Scientist Magazine also has a good introductory article about it:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17025-deadly-new-flu-virus-in-us-and-mexico-may-go-pandemic.html [newscientist.com]
From the article:
Flu viruses are named after the two main proteins on their surfaces, abbreviated H and N. They are also differentiated by what animal they usually infect. The H in the new virus comes from pigs, but some of its other genes come from bird and human flu viruses, a mixture that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls "very unusual".
====
When people start making comments like this, I can't help wondering if this was someone's science project that got out into the open instead of a strain that occurred naturally.
Some company found out a year before already... (Score:3, Interesting)
...as this article learns us. [prweb.com]
Makes you indeed wonder !
Mental note: beware of Replikins bringing medicine to lethal flu.
Re:Artificially Created Strain of H1N1? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, I was curious about that, too. I don't think it's intentional though. What speaks for a random event or a lab accident as opposed to some intentional act of bio-terrorism is the fact that it's survivable, and not resistant to drugs.
how new strains of fu happen (Score:4, Informative)
Mans living in close proximity with foul and swine - usually under conditions of extreme poverty and in China, is what cause flues to cross the species barrer and become zoodemic. Airplane travel causes them to go pandemic.
You don't need labs to create new and deadly flu viruses when the poor have been crowdsourcing this for eons.
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Re:Artificially Created Strain of H1N1? (Score:5, Informative)
If it really is a weaponized strain, it's an extraordinarily poor one. I've just finished listening to "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History" by John M. Barry.
The 1918 Influenza A strain was a subtype of avian strain H1N1, which spread & killed much faster.
One would expect by now even the most incompetent biotechnologist with an eye towards weaponizing could at least match the 1918 strain.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
When people start making comments like this, I can't help wondering if this was someone's science project that got out into the open instead of a strain that occurred naturally.
Yeah, that or an effort from Gilead Sciences to increase sales of Tamiflu.
Re:Artificially Created Strain of H1N1? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the chances of this being bio-terrorism just clicked up a notch: According to this article [bloomberg.com]:
The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama's trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico's anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn't confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.
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I have a Mac (Score:5, Funny)
I have a Macbook Pro. That means I'm immune, right?
Re:I have a Mac (Score:5, Funny)
As long as you never leave your mom's basement, yes.
Brett
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Roche stock ... (Score:4, Informative)
Or should I say clever timing [yahoo.com]?
CC.
transplant organs from pork to human... (Score:3, Interesting)
For a few year ago it was a huge ethical question about growing human organs in pig for transplantation in case of accidents.
The proponents focused upon the saving of lives in the moment
The opposition focused upon the threats this could cause for the entire human race as viruses suddenly could pass the gap and flood us with waves of new diseases we have never known before.
Not that I know if this is due to growing human organs inside porks, but expect many new deadly deceases such as this as animal grown parts turn up inside humans.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's it--no more liverwurst for me...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This Article Has Everything To Do With /. (Score:3, Insightful)
What? This article isn't about a .1 release of your favorite open source software package?
Despite that fact, it really is Slashdot's purview. Biology, migration, politics, computer models, projections, population studies ...
Re:Mmmmm... (Score:5, Informative)
> The chances of these proteins from bird, avian flu combining with a swine retro virus
> that is easily transmittable is astronomical.
Yes, it is fairly likely. Influenza viruses do this sort of thing all the time.
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Actually, actually (Score:5, Informative)
For any epidemic with a new strain, there's ALWAYS something that's fairly unusual and something you have never seen before.
In fact, it's unusual NOT to see something unusual. I get suspicious when there's nothing strange with a straight textbook case. Someone's probably not investigating hard enough.
In case you haven't guessed yet, I am by profession an epidemiologist. There's NOT ENOUGH information available to the public to draw any conclusions. I'm sure the guys on this one are up to their eyeballs with conflicting information and are trying to sort it all out.
There's a potential, but until we know better, keep your fearmongering to yourself.
And you're using the word "vector" wrong. Depending on what you believe, your understanding might not even be wrong.
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Re:Mmmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
The chances of these proteins from bird, avian flu combining with a swine retro virus that is easily transmittable is astronomical.
How many generations does a typical virus go through in a very short period of time? You forget that "evolutionary" time is vastly sped up for our bacterial and viral friends. In the amount of time it took me to type this paragraph these bugger probably went through a couple hundred generations, and spawned untold mutations. Thats why viruses are so hard to fight. This is especially true with influenza, which is why we don't have a "cure" for it yet.
Sometimes viruses win the genetic lottery too, especially when they get to go through billions of iterations each year. The odds of HIV/AIDs jumping from primates to a human form was also astronomical, as was the original swine flu, but I doubt that anyone would posit those as cases of biological weapons gone wrong.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They're fast, but they aren't THAT fast. I think that 20 minutes is a fair guess at a generation time without any additional information. And they don't change environments with each generation. You'll bet multiple generations within a single cell.
That said, you've got tremendous numbers of virus particles reproducing simultaneously in an extremely large number of places. So unlikely events ARE to be expected. Still, this seems a bit of an extreme example. As described it requires at least 5 cross-ove
Re:Protective Measures: Goggles and Face Masks (Score:5, Funny)
The only way to be sure you are safe is a total body condom.
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Re:So did the virus evolve? (Score:5, Informative)
Believe it? I caught it.
San Antonio area was one of the first hit, and for all the cases diagnosed, I guarantee ya there are dozens more that couldn't afford to see a doctor.
Didn't feel TOO much worse than the normal version of flu. Little less achy, but a LOT more power-hurling.
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Correction: you might have had it (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless someone at CDC or your state health laboratories have cultured your virus, there's no way to be sure what you had. Actually, I bet they'd like to hear from you...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So basically this strain is one that was only expected to emerge "when pigs fly"?
Re:So, what does Google trends say? (Score:4, Interesting)
sorry, direct link
http://www.google.org/flutrends/ [google.org]
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Re:This is really big news... (Score:5, Insightful)
The Influenza of 1918 Killed two to three times as many people as died in World War I, in just two years. Tens of millions of people died in 2 years.
http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/ [stanford.edu]
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