Killer swine flu outbreak in Mexico, government alarmed

[salm]

Thirld World, eh?

*Ahem* Bullshit.
At least not in the sense Guatemala, Thailand, or the like...

...

More of what they call an "Emerging market" or "Developing country" ...

I hate to break it to you, but for those of us in first-world countries, "developing countries" and "third world countries" are pretty much the same thing.

Sorry, but when you say "we're not a third world country, we're a developing country!", that comes off as quasi-comical hair-splitting rather than an important correction.

Only because first worlders tend to be ignorant of such things. If you´ve ever had the chance to compare a real third world country like Mozambique to a developing country like Mexico (by actually going there) you´ll have a completely different perspective of the whole thing. He´s not splitting hairs at all.

[Posner]

In defense of Mexico, the Yucatan, like a lot of the Gulf Coast, has absolutely beatiful beaches. Warm, clear water without a lot of seaweed and white powdery sand. Beaches on the East Coast, for example, don't even compare. But it's still usually better to just hit up the Gulf Coast of Florida; you can drink the water there.

[D.Turtle]

Another good source of Information would be the Flu Wiki Forum - including the 2009 Swine Flu H1N1 Outbreak and Migration Map.

Oh, and isn't it great that the Republicans managed to tighten the Stimulus Package spending, removing such useless things as most of the $900 million in funding for pandemic flu preparations?

The House of Representatives had included $900 million in pandemic preparedness funds in its version of the massive stimulus package, but it appeared that all but $50 million was removed by the conference committee that ironed out differences between the House and Senate versions, said Richard Hamburg, government relations director for the nonpartisan, nonprofit group Trust for America's Health (TFAH).

...

The $50 million left in the bill, listed as a Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund, is for improving information technology security at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Hamburg said. The sums removed included $420 million for pandemic flu and $430 million for biomedical advanced research and development, he reported.

Its not like a pandemic would harm the economy and stopping it as early as possible might be useful...

Lets just hope it doesn't get that bad.

[Furlong]

I had forgotten about that little thing with the package. Anyone remember what the Republican word for 'Oops' is?

I don;t think this will get to Spanish Flu levels though. For one thing, we seem to be reacting well to this. My guess is that people are nervous because of all the steps that are being taken by the Government. I would be more nervous if they were not taking these steps.

[FSTargetDrone]

EU says not to go to the US or Mexico unless you really need to (well, don't go to "parts" of those countries, really):

Swine flu prompts EU warning on travel to U.S.

Spain reports first confirmed case of swine flu in Europe

The Associated Press

updated 9:53 a.m. ET, Mon., April 27, 2009

LUXEMBOURG - The top EU health official urged Europeans on Monday to postpone nonessential travel to parts of the United States and Mexico because of the swine flu virus, and Spanish health officials confirmed the first case outside North America.

Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid a surging global concern about a possible pandemic.

World stock markets fell as investors worried that the deadly outbreak could go global and derail any global economic recovery. Airlines took the brunt of the selling.

The virus was suspected in up to 103 deaths in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak with more than 1,600 cases suspected, while 40 cases — none fatal — were confirmed in the United States and six in Canada, the World Health Organization said.

"Today we've seen increased number of confirmed cases in several countries," WHO spokesman Paul Garwood told The Associated Press. "WHO is very concerned about the number of cases that are appearing, and the fact that more and more cases are appearing in different countries."

President Barack Obama said the threat of spreading infections is cause for concern but "not a cause for alarm."

The WHO set its pandemic alert level at level 3, which means there is an animal virus that occasionally causes human cases but that doesn't spread well between people. If the WHO raises it to 4 or 5, that signals that the swine flu virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading between humans. That move could lead governments to set trade, travel and other restrictions aimed at limiting the disease's spread.

In Luxembourg, European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou urged Europeans to postpone nonessential travel to parts of the United States and Mexico affected by swine flu, toning down earlier comments referring to all of North America.

"I meant a travel advisory, not a travel ban, for travel to Mexico City and those states in the United States where we have outbreaks" of swine flu, he said.

The EU health commissioner only makes recommendations to the 27 member countries; they must make a final decision to set travel advisories through their foreign ministries.

'These are early days'

Dr. Richard Besser, acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said the EU recommendation was not warranted. "At this point I would not put a travel restriction or recommendation against coming to the United States."

A top German holiday tour operator said it was suspending charter flights to Mexico City.

"These are early days. It's quite clear that there is a potential for this virus to become a pandemic and threaten globally," WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley told AP Television News.

Spain's first swine flu case — confirmed by the WHO — was a young man in the town of Almansa who recently returned from Mexico for university studies and is responding well to treatment, said Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez. Neither the young man nor any of the 20 other people under observation for the virus were in serious condition.

Cordingley singled out air travel as an easy way the virus could spread, noting that the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any time.

New Zealand was testing 13 students, their parents and teachers who were showing flu-like symptoms after returning from Mexico, said Health Minister Tony Ryall. Britain, Israel, France, Brazil, Switzerland and Sweden were also conducting tests.

At Germany's bustling Frankfurt Airport, people suspected of having the disease are being examined before getting off planes, said the health minister for Hesse state, Juergen Banzer. This policy has been in effect since Saturday at continental Europe's second-busiest airport, after Charles de Gaulle in Paris.

Governments in Asia — with potent memories of SARS and avian flu outbreaks — heeded the warning amid global fears of a pandemic.

Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used during the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers arriving from North America. South Korea and Indonesia introduced similar screening.

In Malaysia, health workers in face masks took the temperatures of passengers as they arrived on a flight from Los Angeles.

Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors returning from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined.

Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon said pilots on international flights would be required to file a report noting any flu-like symptoms among passengers before being allowed to land in Australia.

China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival had to report to authorities.

India will start screening people arriving from Mexico, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Britain and France for flu-like symptoms, said Vineet Chawdhry, a top Health Ministry official. It also will contact people who have arrived from Mexico and other affected countries in the past 10 days to check for the symptoms, he said.

Some officials cautioned that the checks might not be enough.

The virus could move between people before any symptoms show up, said John Simon, a scientific adviser to Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection.

Thomas Tsang, controller for Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection, said the government and universities aim to develop a test for the new flu strain in a week or two that will return results in four to six hours, compared with existing tests that can take 2-3 days.

China and Russia banned imports of pork and pork products from Mexico and three U.S. states that have reported cases of swine flu, and other governments were increasing their screening of pork imports.

Indonesia, which was hit hardest by bird flu, said it was banning all pork imports.

Lebanon's agriculture ministry also banned all imports of pork and pork products, excluding some canned products. It also says it will destroy any pork shipments to have entered Lebanon from a country declared infected with the swine flu virus by the WHO or countries with suspected cases.

The CDC says people cannot get the flu by eating pork or pork products.

Germany's largest tour operator, the Hannover-based TUI, suspended all charter flights to Mexico City through May 4. The suspension includes flights operated by TUI itself and also through companies 1-2 Fly, Airtours, Berge & Meer, Grebeco and L'tur.

TUI said other holiday trips to Mexico would continue to operate but would not make stops in Mexico City "for the next few weeks." Japan's largest tour agency, JTB Corp., suspended tours to Mexico at least through June 30.

Russian travel agencies said 30 percent of those planning to travel to Mexico in early May had already canceled.

At Madrid's Barajas International Airport, passengers arriving from Mexico were asked to declare where they had been and whether they had felt any cold symptoms. They were told to leave a contact address and phone number.

"Where we were, there was no real alarm but we followed what was happening on the news and we're a little bit worried," said Spaniard Filomeno Ruiz, back from vacation in Cancun.

Passengers were also urged to contact health authorities if they notice any symptoms in the 10 days following arrival.

In the airport's baggage claim area, ground crews and police wore surgical face masks. Some travelers took precautions even though they had not been in Mexico.

"Nobody has recommended it, but I've put the mask on out of precaution," said Roger Holmes of Britain, who was traveling to Tunisia from Madrid. "I'm not afraid, but it costs nothing to be careful."

[Kodiak]

Fox News has a banner reading "Breaking News 5.8 Earthquake Rocks Mexico City ". Nothing on CNN about it as yet.

Link to quake info here

[Bounty]

BBC confirms on its news ticker, "buildings rocked in Mexico City". No article yet.

God must really hate Mexicans.

[Kodiak]

It'll be interesting to see what sort of disaster response is needed to help out people. Also, now will everyone need to exit buildings for inspections?

Edit: Any guesses on how long before we start hearing "God hates Mexicans" from the far-right?

[Bounty]

CDC press conference in progress; 40 swine flu cases in the US, half of them in New York.

[aerius]

6 cases in Canada, 2 in BC and 4 in Nova Scotia. Kinda surprised nothing's showed up so far in Toronto yet. This is one of the times when I'm not entirely thrilled with my job.

[Dartzap]

Two confirmed in the UK as well, with one other cleared of it.

[Broomstick]

On the plus side, the heightened alert regarding travel to and from areas with confirmed cases may very well prevent a genuine pandemic. Air travel is an easy way for disease to travel, consider this a dress rehearsal for a more serious situation.

As for the earthquake... wow, they're having a bad week, aren't they?

[Bedlam]

Monday, 27 April 2009

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UK swine flu cases confirmed
© ITN 2009
Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed the first British cases of deadly swine flu.
Two people have tested positive for the virus and are being treated in isolation in hospital in Airdrie, near Glasgow, while seven more people among 22 who have been in contact with them have developed "mild symptoms" not confirmed as swine flu.
The pair developed symptoms after returning from a trip to Mexico, where more than 100 people have died following an outbreak of the H1N1 virus.
Ms Sturgeon added: "I would reiterate that the threat to the public remains low and that the precautionary actions we have taken over the last two days have been important in allowing us to respond appropriately and give us the best prospect of disrupting the spread of the virus."
Health Secretary Alan Johnson earlier said ministers have put in place "enhanced" port health checks on passengers arriving in the UK and will use its stockpile of anti-viral drugs if the virus begins to spread widely.
Spain earlier confirmed Europe's first case of swine flu. The man, who had recently been in Mexico, is said to be responding well to treatment and was not in a serious condition.
The European Union's health chief has warned non-essential travel to swine flu-hit parts of Mexico and the US be postponed.
The disease has claimed 103 lives in Mexico with as many as 1,600 carrying the virus. Cases have been confirmed in countries including the US, New Zealand and Canada.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there are up to 45 cases of swine flu in five states, including 20 more cases at a New York school, while people who have had contact with confirmed cases are also developing flu-like symptoms.
Passengers returning to Heathrow from Mexico City are being kept aboard their planes while health officials ask them if they feel unwell. But other travellers at Gatwick airport said they had not been stopped as they returned to Britain.
The Government said it has enough medicine to treat half the population.
The NHS has a stockpile of more than £500 million worth of the Tamiflu anti-viral drug, which has proved effective on patients in Mexico, and scientists are working on developing a vaccine against the new strain.
World Health Organisation Director-General Margaret Chan said the outbreak, caused when the H1N1 strain associated with pigs crossed over to the human population, constituted a "public health emergency of international concern".

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/article.aspx? ... d=16390021

What sounds like secondary cases in the UK as well i.e. people infected who were not themselves in Mexico, although as it says its not confirmed they have Swine flu. I'm in Edinburgh and everyone in the office is coughting or sneezing from some bug or another so we have a few things with similar (but much less serious) symptoms going round at the moment which isn't helping the paranoia.

[Dartzap]

Its interesting to note that according to a health professional on the Breakfast Sofa earlier today stated that wearing masks is rather ineffective against this sort of virus - it'll work for about three hours, and then become more harmfull than good, and would need to be changed a dozen times a day to be even the slighest bit effective. Me thinks Mexicans should be informed of that.

Listening to Radio 4 on my way back from my weekend break, it did occur to me that in no other nation would the idea of a mutant killer disease from the land of Montazuma could sound quite so bloody dull. I just want to see Huw Edwards or Jon Snow burst into hysterics. Just once.....

[Akkleptos]

Finally, the craze made it here. The Health Secretary has ordered ALL schools in the country to be closed. That means I get to take the rest of the week off... Yay!

Oh, and the WHO level just went to 4 (out of 6).

I hate to break it to you, but for those of us in first-world countries, "developing countries" and "third world countries" are pretty much the same thing.

Oh, and the fact people in the First World don't know the difference, means it doesn't exist.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Shit, 1 confirmed case in sacramento, and 3 possible. The madness is now an easy 90-minute drive away.

[Kodiak]

Time to buy some hand sanitizer.

We have our brand-new baby, and at his check-up today our doctor advised to not take him out of the house and for us to be super careful avoiding crowds.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Okay, I just heard this on the news and it sounds too crazy to be true; The United States currently does NOT have a Surgeon General, Director of Health & Human Services, or a Surgeon General.

What the hell?

[SirNitram]

Okay, I just heard this on the news and it sounds too crazy to be true; The United States currently does NOT have a Surgeon General, Director of Health & Human Services, or a Surgeon General.

What the hell?

I can confirm the second.

RAR THE FORMER GOVERNER OF KANSAS IS AN ENEMY OF THE UNBORN!!!!!!

That's about why; she refused to support abortion bans including to save the life of the mother. So Kathleen Sebelious sits waiting.. And waiting..

[Kodiak]

Okay, I just heard this on the news and it sounds too crazy to be true; The United States currently does NOT have a Surgeon General, Director of Health & Human Services, or a Surgeon General.

What the hell?

Did you mean to say "Surgeon General" twice? Also, there's no head of the CDC IIRC.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Yes, I meant Head of CDC for one of those Surgeons General.

[The Yosemite Bear]

which just goes to show that the fundies care more about making women suffer and the rights of the unborn then they do about the living and vital.

[Knife]

Well, while I agree, I'm quite sure there are 'acting' heads of all of those departments. In fact, probably career people instead of politically appointed peeps so probably better work being done.

[Posner]

which just goes to show that the fundies care more about making women suffer and the rights of the unborn then they do about the living and vital.

Well, retard, do you think this is the first time a new administration has had trouble getting confirmations through?

[SirNitram]

which just goes to show that the fundies care more about making women suffer and the rights of the unborn then they do about the living and vital.

Well, retard, do you think this is the first time a new administration has had trouble getting confirmations through?

'It's not brand new, so STOP CRITICIZING IT!'. Yea. That's logical.

Shall we revisit the GOP killing flu pandemic funding in the stimulus? Or perhaps you could grab your shoulder, pull really hard, and once your head pops loose of your anus, you can examine the farce that the Sec. of HHS is undergoing, because she didn't leap onto the most extreme of fringe morality-police.