New Flu Strain Appears In the US and Mexico 315
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.
Flu in Queens (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Good luck with quarantines (Score:1, Informative)
You mean the US?
The first few known cases originated in the US.
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".
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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.
Re:Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas (Score:1, Informative)
Roche stock ... (Score:4, Informative)
Or should I say clever timing [yahoo.com]?
CC.
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.
Re:Why? (Score:1, Informative)
Jesus, you haven't been here that long, have you?
This site isn't a technology site.
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.
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]
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.
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.
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
Terror. (Score:1, Informative)
http://turnerradionetwork.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-flu-outbreak-traced-to-missing-us.html
Re:Don't run -- treat it yourself. (PP & D) (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Delayed (Score:1, Informative)
CDC has a twitter feed for latest confirmed info:
http://twitter.com/CDCemergency
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 spread of this virus," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters on a conference call.
Re:Young Adults (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Young Adults (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: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.
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.