Posted on 04/29/2009 1:10:46 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
” Japanese love a good overreaction. Their prudence at the border is much better than Napolitano’s “meh, its already here”. But it is quite comical to watch the Japanese in the face of extremely unlikely disaster “
True , but goes to show how inept the USA is .
The dogs are fine. Bring ‘em in. Of course, they will have to go through quarantine, too, though....might have to sit at Narita for about a week or so.
Burrito Bug?
Taco Terror?
Enchilada Epidemic?
swine flu name change ping..
The Japanese had one of the lowest percentage death rates for a major nation during the Spanish Flu, because of their foresight.
The Japanese don't live here. They see a bunch of Chicago thug politicians going to Mexico to discuss it's "problems", and the next thing you know the Mexicans are dropping like flies. Oboma gave them "an offer they couldn't refuse".
If you lived outside the country, what would you think if you saw this?
We do not know the Case Fatality Ratio (CFR) in Mexico. CFR = number of swine flu deaths divided by the total number of cases. Note total number of cases, not total number of patients in the hospital. We do not even know how many of them died from the flu and not by pneumonia, it could be pneumonia as a secondary infection after they had the swine flu or it could be normal pneumonia. Greater Mexico City has a population of about 25 million, it must be many, many pneumonia cases every year.
Twelve nosocomial outbreaks over 14 years at a tertiary care center in Mexico are described. Overall mortality was 25.8%, one half due to pneumonia. The most common organism was Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Incidence was three outbreaks per 10,000 discharges; outbreaks related infections comprised 1.56% of all nosocomial infections. Incidence in the intensive care unit was 10 fold higher.
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/501800
US
More than 2 million cases of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) occur each year in the United States, resulting in approximately 10 million physician visits, more than 500,000 hospitalizations, and approximately 50,000 deaths. Over time the number of microorganisms identified as pathogens has increased, along with new broad-spectrum antibiotics available for treatment. At the same time, common pathogens have become increasingly resistant to frequently used antibiotics, complicating the management of CAP and prompting the development of management guidelines.
Epidemiology
The actual incidence of pneumonia in ambulatory patients is difficult to estimate because the etiologic agent is rarely identified except in clinical trials, and CAP is not currently considered a reportable disease. Each year in the United States there are 2 to 3 million cases of CAP. The incidence of hospitalization is estimated at 260 cases per 100,000 population but is about fourfold higher in those over age 65. CAP results in about 500,000 hospitalizations annually, with approximately 45,000 deaths; pneumonia is the sixth most common cause of death in the United States. Between 1979 and 1994, pneumonia and influenza–related death rates have increased because of the increasing number of patients over 65 and patients with underlying illnesses. Studies of patients with CAP report mortality rates of 5.1% to 36.5%, averaging about 14%. 4 An analysis of 1993 hospital discharge data from Washington, Illinois, and Florida revealed death rates of 7.0%, 8.1%, and 9.7%, respectively. Risk factors for mortality include age, alcoholism, bacteremia, and multilobar involvement on radiographs. Contributing factors include underlying malignancy, immunosuppression, neurologic disease, congestive heart failure, and diabetes. Aspiration, postobstructive, gram-negative, and Staphylococcus aureus forms of pneumonia are also associated with higher
mortality risk.
http://www.healthline.com/elseviercontent/textbook-pneumonia
200 cases in Mexico City is nothing
Now in Chicago IL
The city health commissioner, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools and police are expected at a Wednesday morning press conference discussing the closure of an elementary school in the Far North Side’s Rogers Park neighborhood because of the Swine Flu virus.
Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Monique Bond said early Wednesday that Kilmer Elementary School at the 6700 block of North Greenview Avenue is being closed because of swine flu.
“We do have a probable case [at Kilmer]...and we’re now going to send that specimen on to the CDC,” said Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold, who could not confirm if it was a student at the school who had become ill.
More details will be available at a 7 a.m. press conference at the school. The school’s Web site did not provide further details early Wednesday.
Barry on FOX now. CDT
Having been through SARS threat, Avian Flu threat, their own population hit by Sarin gas, and assorted other calamaties for 2,000 YEARS the Japanese as a nation and as a national characteristic/mindset have grown to be very alert to these kinds of pandemics and other threats—either through insularity or common sense or both. I know I would not want to watch a loved one die a slow and painful and isolated death based on a horrid disease, so I suspect all things being equal, their prudent approach is far more advisable to a “whatever” approach of waiting till things are too late, all out of a liberal, warped sense of not wanting to offend people or countries (i.e. Mexico and Mexicans).
It should be “Mexican Flu”, yes, quite agreed. But if US health and border security officials dont get their act together, it may have to in fact be revised to “Mexican-American flu” or “North American flu”. What a shame if not an outrage.
Funny how Japan can see what Washington cannot. Since we won’t close our borders, it is our flu (North American or Mexican American flu)!!
Your report is excellent, I share your concerns as a fellow member of this planet, just in a very different place at the moment as you (and most other Freepers). Bottom line is to BE PREPARED. I felt this sense around 9-11; it is a very chilling thought and one must construct some outlets (prayer, reading, going for walks if possible in countryside, journaling, e mailing and calling friends, clearing out stuff one does not need, finding charitable causes, working out in a home gym, etc. etc.) to keep tip top mentally above all this stuff.
BTTT
good for them. this is how you handle these things.
Let’s call it, “Obama’s Katrina.”
What is the point of closing down U.S. schools when established ports of entry from Mexico to US are still wide open, tourists and others are freely shuttling back and forth to Mexico with the minimum amount of health survellience, and need I also say vast segments of the US southern border outside of established Border Control border crossings like San Diego and Calexico and Juarez and Laredo, is also one big open, come-one-come-all porous mess. If that is not tightened up and screenings fortified, closing a school here and school there in the USA—as this stuff spreads—is like swatting at individual mosquitoes in a hot Alabama summer when the whole back door screen AND front door AND all windows of the house are widely ajar.
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