EXTRA: Influenza death toll rises to 81 in Mexico

Earth Times ^ | April 26, 2009

[2ndDivisionVet]

Mexico City - The death toll from a spreading wave of influenza in Mexico has climbed to 81, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said Saturday evening. Twenty of the lethal infections have been definitively linked to the newly emerging strain of swine flu, he said. All told, 1,324 people have been admitted to hospital for examination.

In the United States, 11 non-lethal cases of a similar strain of influenza have been identified by the Centres for Disease Control, with tests pending on another 10 cases.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization declared the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the United States a "public health emergency of international concern."

Cordova Villalobos said that schools would remain closed next week in Mexico City, where the flu has hit hardest.

The health minister dismissed speculation in the Mexican media about US President Barack Obama's possible exposure to the virus when he was in Mexico City ten days ago, just after the flu started breaking out there.

Reforma newspaper had reported that Obama had had contact at a museum with a reknown archeologist, Felipe Solis Olguin, who died of a combination of diabetes and pneumonia shortly afterwards.

Cordova Villalobos clarified the man's cause of death, saying the pneumonia was not related to influenza, but rather to a combination of an unnamed pre-existing condition and a sudden onset of pneumonia that was not related to influenza.

In Washington, the White House reassured CNN that the president was not suffering from any flu symptoms.

In Britain, the Sunday Times reported that a British Airways cabin crew member had been taken to a hospital with influenza symptoms after becoming sick on a flight from Mexico City into Heathrow Airport.

Growing concern by health officials focussed on the apparent human-to-human transmission of the swine flu, which normally is only transmitted from animal to human.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Something smells fishy to me here, but I guess I'm just a cynic.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I'm sure that you don't mean that: I'm 100% against illegal immigration from anywhere but I don't want anyone to die, save for killers on death row.

[buccaneer81]

Something smells fishy to me here, but I guess I'm just a cynic.

You're right on the money. Something's up.

[Paleo Conservative]

I wouldn’t mind if the Mexican drug gangs got hit hard by the influenza. So far they’re killing a lot more Mexicans than is the influenza.

[Smokin' Joe]

I wouldn’t mind if the Mexican drug gangs got hit hard by the influenza. So far they’re killing a lot more Mexicans than is the influenza.

The drug gangs had a head start.

[CondorFlight]

“The death toll from a spreading wave of influenza in Mexico has climbed to 81.”

More like 200, according to unofficial reports.

Unusual form of flu, though...

[Yorktownpatriot]

Hmmmm... do I smell a martial law edict coming from Comrade Obummer?
That would also help usher with his gun grab proposals if the background check system was down wouldn’t it?

[cookcounty]

"Cordova Villalobos clarified the man's cause of death, saying the pneumonia was not related to influenza, but rather to a combination of an unnamed pre-existing condition and a sudden onset of pneumonia that was not related to influenza."

He died of cardiac arrest, which is one of the ways you die in a Cytokine event.

On the other hand, it's 10 days since the Prez was in Mexico, so he probably did not pick it up there.

On the other hand, we don't know if any of his 500-member Traveling Sycophant Team is feeling poorly and has been spreading it.

[Kartographer]

Sounds like ‘Captian Trips’ to me:

“The wind had picked up again, it made strange hooting sound in some empty doorway, and farther away he thought he could hear bootheels pacing off the night, rundown bootheels somewhere in the foothills coming to him on the chilly draft of this early morning breeze.
Dirty bootheels clocking their way into the grave of the West.”

[PghBaldy]

I dont trust Obama, but this is a disease. A possibly horrible outbreak has started, and we wont know for a while. SO far, it s acting like 1918 flu- March/April start, then it lay “dormant” only to strike with a vengeance in Autumn. The fact it is a swine flu is very bothersome- saw a pandemic documentary yrs back which said bird+pig+human means possible pandemic- this could be what the scientists thought bird flu would be. I hope not, but so far does not look good.

[CondorFlight]

“SO far, it s acting like 1918 flu- March/April start, then it lay “dormant” only to strike with a vengeance in Autumn.”

Apparently it’s dormant in summer because it needs moist air to travel. One solution then might be to de-humidify the air around you.

[tatown]

The constant comparisons to the Spanish Flu are nothing more than hyperbole at this point. Those in the United States that have been confirmed have ALL showed mild symptoms (no deaths).

While the total number of confirmed cases here is only 20ish, the real number is likely in the hundreds or thousands and again they all seem to be mild. If you think this resembles the Spanish Flu in any way, I would recommend that you go back to do some research on how virulent that disease really was. There was nothing mild about it, even for those that didn’t die.

[Kartographer]

I am not saying you are right, but give the newness of the outbreak its hard to really judge anything at this time, But I would be following the CDC’s prep list, because if you wait until you know for sure that’s damn well going to be to late!

http://www.myfdh.org/Community%20Health/Pandemic%20Flu.htm

http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/individual/checklist.html

[Smokin' Joe]

More like 200, according to unofficial reports.

Noted, as has been quoted in several threads, but it isn't official until the lab results are in, and that may account for the discrepancies in numbers. If the bottleneck is at the lab, that gap may grow.

Unusual form of flu, though...

Unusual enough to prompt speculation that the recombinations involved may not be completely natural in origin, with a combination of human, swine, and avian types from half way around the world.

[tiki]

LOL, I’m so “blonde” I thought he was talking about the steps they have taken like closing the schools.

[Starstruck]

This might just be a way of ending small get togethers like oh...Tea Parties.

[AmericanInTokyo]

This has incessantly been the top news here in Asia.

Japanese are getting serious. They are alerting all ports of entry (note: unless you are incredibly resourceful, you are NOT going to easily get into this island country let alone stay for long illegally, as compared to the porous USA). In effect at airports accepting any international flights, they are checking any passengers who have been to MEXICO, and also to USA (CALIFORNIA) for fevers and sickness; and they are going to track anyone in the country for 10 days, calling regularly for health reports on them once they are in Japan, after they had visited Mexico, or US West Coast it seems. It looks rather unprecedented to me. Saw TV news on it a few hours ago and the signs are already going up at Narita (Tokyo) airport in the arrival hall for people to see before going through immigration and customs. They are trying to hermetically seal the country; they want NONE of this, the MEXICAN INFLUENZA.

Some Japanese reporters are on the verge of openly observing the unchecked flow of people into the United States from Latin America will facilitate a transmission line for the spread of the disease that most sane countries would not allow or tolerate.

[Born to Conserve]

It’s been spreading for over a week.

It is everywhere in the U.S. there are illegals. Give it a week to stew.

[lainie]

NZealand students quarantined after Mexico trip

(25 people returning with flu-like symptoms quarantined)