Bad news for the Mexican Economy.
Why? The horse is already out of the barn! ;-)
If they tried to reschedule my Caribbean cruise for the Pacific Northwest, I would be pissed.
If I wanted fog and rain in ocean water colder than an icebox (I have been to Oregon....beautiful.....but water colder than all get out), I would have chosen that destination.
Luckily I have not booked any cruises that could be cancelled here.
Here’s a story of a Canadian woman who became ‘ill’ in Cancun, had asthma complications, taken back to Canada, told no ICU beds available, made it in another hospital, then died. Two things going on here - still no mention of flu (which probably made her ill to begin with) and the lack of medical treatment she received in Canada. The Dems cry ‘universal health care!’ is the way to go, well, here is universal health care at its finest.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090430.wflustranded30art2241/BNStory/Front
Swine Flu: Ill woman is in ICU in West GA hospital
http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=10279275
Thursday, the head of Georgia’s Division of Public Health says the CDC has confirmed the first case in the state, a 30-year-old woman from Kentucky who was hospitalized in the town of LaGrange while visiting west Georgia.
She’d been in Cancun, Mexico, earlier this month.
The woman is in the ICU at West GA Medical in LaGrange, GA showing modest signs and considered seriously ill.
Timeline:
She traveled from Kentucky to Georgia with her 5-year-old daughter by way of car.
Prior to her trip to Georgia she took a leisure trip to Cancun, Mexico with a travel companion from April 17- April 21.
She began to fell ill on April 18th, but she thought it was due to the sun.
April 23: She arrived in Atlanta, GA by way of car.
April 24: She went shopping in Atlanta, GA.
April 25: She went to a wedding rehearsal dinner in LaGrange, GA.
April 26: She attended a wedding and later that day went to the ER voluntarily with family to West Georgia Medical in LaGrange, GA. She was immediately isolated. Officials performed a rapid specimen test , which the CDC received on April 28.
The family and those in her close circle were given anti-viral medications as a precaution.
The CDC and the Georgia Division of Public Health are working together to notify those that were in contact with her at the wedding.
April 30: Confirmed 30 year-old woman who has swine flu is from Warren County, Kentucky.
Notice that in the case above the woman was ambulatory for 8 days, with symptoms, before she went to the hospital. She is now in an ICU. She is 30 years old.
This is the same pattern as reported in Mexico.
Ping
This is what I’ve heard
1. H1N1 2009 starts with normal flu symptoms plus some gastrointestinal symptoms.
2. Five days later, respiratory distress occurs.
3. The first patient in Mexico took 8 days to die and was ambulatory for many of those days.
4. The first big cluster of cases in the US started showing symptoms on April 23.
5. As of April 28, there were at least 5 people in the hospital in the US.
6. At least two of them are in critical condition.
Conclusion - the disease is following the same pattern in the US that it followed in Mexico. We just haven’t let enough time go by for the deaths to accumulate. Other mitigating factors: many in the US may have received prompt administration of Tamiflu. The large cluster in New York were younger than the age that took the most deaths in Mexico.
NZ suspected swine flu cases rise to 136
May 1, 2009 - 1:42PM
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/nz-suspected-swine-flu-cases-rise-to-136-20090501-aprh.html
The number of suspected cases of swine flu in New Zealand rose to 136 on Friday, the New Zealand government said.
The figure was up 25 from the previous day, while the three confirmed and 13 probable cases of the potentially deadly virus were unchanged from Thursday, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall told a press conference.
New Zealand became one of the first countries outside North America to detect likely swine flu cases after a school group returned from a trip to Mexico last Saturday.
Twelve of the 16 confirmed and probable swine flu cases were members of the high school group which had been on a three-week Spanish language tour in Mexico.
Officials confirmed on Friday that a passenger who arrived from North America on April 19 had tested positive for influenza A, which is linked to swine flu. He is one of the 13 probable cases.
“We are involved today in an extensive contact-tracing exercise with his place of work,” said Auckland’s top medical official, Julia Peters.
Although the traveller arrived on the 19th, he did not start showing flu symptoms until the 22nd and did not visit his doctor until April 28, when he was put into quarantine with his family.
Report from Mexican relatives.....the Mexican government is ordering the closure of all businesses, restaurants, etc. in the town of Dolores Hidalgo, MX and probably everywhere else as well. Something is pretty wrong for them to do that. You read it here first.
The generosity of Carnival is astounding...
In Mexico City, a second ‘pandemic’: rumors
Inherently suspicious of government pronouncements, only 19 percent of Mexicans believe official swine flu figures.
By Jonathan Roeder | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the April 30, 2009 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0430/p06s12-woam.html
Mexico City - Mexico’s capital is not easily rattled: Its 20 million or so residents regularly shrug off crime, corruption, drought, gridlock, overcrowding, and bad air.
But the outbreak of swine flu, which has killed an estimated 176 people nationwide, is different. City residents are staying home in droves, and many are scared and confounded by the virus that has led authorities to close schools, offices, bars, gyms, and commercial establishments, virtually halting daily life for millions.
With clear information hard to come by, rumors are flying. Years of opaque government and corruption scandals have made many Mexicans instinctively skeptical of most official data, but today’s levels of mistrust are noteworthy even for Mexico.
“There’s a lack of activity, and Mexico is all about activity and people being around each other,” said Alán Santoyo, who sells religious trinkets outside a cathedral in the colonial neighborhood of Coyoacan. A sign on the ancient wooden doors read: “No Mass Due To Sanitary Crisis.”
Mr. Santoyo and many others hypothesize the virus was created and hyped by Mexico’s government to distract the population from some bigger scandal being carried out. Others argue the official death toll is being purposely undercounted to prevent alarm from spreading, and fearful patients with mild symptoms are flooding hospitals and clinics.
In a survey this week of 410 Mexico City adults by the Mexican daily newspaper Reforma, 57 percent said they believed the government was underreporting the numbers, while 10 percent said they thought the statistics were being exaggerated. Only 19 percent believed the official figures. Another 14 percent were unsure of what to think.
Gerardo Bravo Escobar, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon who has examined patients with probable cases of swine flu in a Mexico City hospital, says his private practice has been flooded with patients exhibiting minor symptoms that can be a common occurrence in a dusty city with high levels of air pollution.
Others are disregarding Health Ministry recommendations that they wear surgical masks, stay away from congested areas and wash their hands frequently, he says.
“There’s an important percentage of people who are downplaying the problem because they think [the government] is trying to cover up other problems,” Dr. Bravo Escobar says.
“Other people think the opposite, and are going into a state of hysteria because they believe this thing is extremely serious and all or most of the sick patients are going to die,” he adds.
Analysts say President Felipe Calderon’s administration has compounded the problem by releasing only limited and sometimes confusing data about the epidemic.
For example, Health Minister José Àngel Córdova reported last Monday that there were close to 150 probable deaths from swine flu in Mexico, with 20 of the fatalities proved to be caused by the virus.
Since then, the Health Ministry has adopted stricter criteria, {no, those are imposed WHO criteria} so the number of proven fatalities has dropped to eight, even as the number of probable deaths has risen to 176. The shift caused skepticism in the media that has apparently trickled down to the general population.
Further complicating the cloudy picture is the information trickling from state governments, which sometimes appears to conflict with federal statistics and may be judged with different criteria.
Meanwhile, health officials have also been reluctant to release demographic and geographic information on where the outbreaks are occurring.
“The information doesn’t seem to be complete,” says Dan Lund, whose polling firm, Mund Americas, is carrying out a study on Mexicans’ perceptions of the health scare. “We don’t really know the demographics of who’s sick and who’s dead.”
In a session in Mexico’s Senate Wednesday evening, opposition lawmakers blasted Mr. Cordova, accusing him of failing to keep the nation updated on the situation.
“These are overly conservative numbers and they seem to be hiding information,” said left-leaning Sen. Ricardo Monreal, according to Reforma. “This is creating confusion because there’s no clarity; it’s opaque.”
In addition to the perceived lack of information, strict measures closing schools, bars, restaurants (which are only allowed to offer takeout service), and pretty much anywhere people congregate have angered the business community.
“The economic blow is worse than the blow from [swine flu],” says Mario Sánchez Ruiz, president of a national confederation of service, trade, and tourism chambers.
He estimated the closures are causing losses of $36 million a day in the restaurant industry alone, while retailers and supermarkets are also experiencing pain.
Freeper 444Flyer posted this tidbit
“...Most of those in Mexico are dying of Pneumonia which is what happens after the Influenza wrecks their lungs.”
It is interesting to note that in California, 6 out of the 14 “confirmed” cases have required hospitalization for treatment. Because they are being treated they will most likely be fine. What happens when you start to multiply the cases and the waiting rooms and ERs fill? If this thing takes legs and their is a shortage of ventilators? Based on the California stats, nearly half of the people that contracted this thing required hospital treatment. (I know that most likely there are many more unreported cases, but we’ll stick with the official numbers for now. Still, if even 10 to 20 percents of people absolutely NEED treatment for this thing, that is VERY alarming.)
I’ll share a quick story as to why this alarms me. I live in the area that was hit by the California wildfires a couple years ago. Many of the families who were evacuated had someone in them who had asthma. I spoke with one family who had a 5-year-old who desperately needed a nebulizer (a breathing apparatus that treats asthma) and they couldn’t locate one in the area because their was such a demand for them that they ran out locally. By a miracle of God (I mean that) we were able to find one quickly because another family had one on hand they didn’t need. The 5-year-old got the medication he needed into his lungs and they didn’t need to wait and take him to an ER which were already packed with people coping with respiratory problems from the smoke and ash.
Sorry about the long story but to make a point, I have seen how quickly a localized non-lifethreatening emergency situation can quickly overwhelm the medical care. I have witnessed how quickly things become scarce like facial masks which were needed for the smoke and ash. You couldn’t find a mask to save your life if you needed one. They all sold out.
These are the things that have me alarmed for whatever may come of this. Hopefully this epidemic/pandemic will turn out mild. I pray so.
2 Cases Confirmed in Colorado: http://cbs4denver.com/local/Colange.flu.swine.2.998221.html (also here, http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/04/27/daily75.html)
1 Death of a boy in Houston: http://www.coloradoconnection.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=293951
A Pakistani, among those killed by flu
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The INER reported 15 deaths from the epidemic in National Institute of Respiratory Diseases
A Pakistani was the first foreigner to have died in Mexico, the victim of swine influenza. To his family, a group of about eight people, samples were taken for analysis and were given treatment with the antiviral oseltamivir. Sources from the Ministry of Health confirmed the death of Pakistan, which is part of the 20 deceased persons to whom it was found that the contracted swine influenza.
According to data collected by El Universal, Pakistani, which is not provided the name, joined the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) on April 16.
The Health Department detected its first case of swine influenza and released three days before the April 17 first epidemiological alert for an outbreak of atypical seasonal influenza. The alien died on Sunday April 19. His relatives were summoned to proportional one days after the medication and prevent the spread of the virus. INER in the 15 patients died, one at 11:30 am yesterday by a virus whose name did not clarify the institute’s director, Edgar Mondragon Armijo.
Excerpted
http://pandemicinformationnews.blogspot.com/2009/04/pakistani-among-those-killed-by-flu.html
Hong Kong reports 1st confirmed swine flu in Asia
17 minutes ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnKz6JKf1o0Bic6UrduEAAlxyQ1wD97TF4O81
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong leader says territory has detected swine flu, in Asia’s first confirmed case
Freeper Pete Just Posted This important tidbit !
More details on Hong Kong case. (Bold is mine for emphasis)
Hong Kong confirmed Asia’s first case of the new H1N1 flu virus in a Mexican traveller on Friday, prompting authorities to seal off the hotel where the 25-year old man had been staying. Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang told reporters the man arrived on a China Eastern flight on Thursday afternoon after a stopover in Shanghai. He had a fever and went to Ruttonjee Hospital for help on Thursday evening, Tsang said. The Mexican is now in hospital in a stable condition. The confirmation of the H1N1 infection was made by a laboratory at the University of Hong Kong.
“He didn’t leave the hotel (except to go to hospital) because he was feeling sick,” Health Minister York Chow told a news conference.
Two companions of the Mexican and a friend he met in Hong Kong were now in isolation wards at another hospital, he said. Tsang said he had accepted the recommendation of government health experts to seal off the Metropark hotel in Wanchai district where the Mexican was staying. Dozens of police wearing surgical masks stood guard both inside and outside the hotel late on Friday. Hotel guests were prevented from leaving while outsiders could not get in.
“I assure you the Hong Kong government will try its best to conquer the virus,” Tsang said. “At the present moment, I would prefer to do it more stringently instead of missing the opportunity to control the spread of the virus.”
Chow said the hotel had about 200 guests and over 100 staff and they would be quarantined for seven days. He urged those who were not in the hotel as well as taxi drivers who took the Mexican to the hotel and to hospital to report to authorities. The drastic action left some visitors distressed.
Cinmei Sinaga from Indonesia was left standing for hours on the pavement with her eight-month-old daughter. “I don’t feel that they are doing anything to help me. I just need my passport but we cannot go to another hotel and my baby needs to sleep. I feel scared,” she told Reuters.
The affluent financial hub on the south coast of China is widely seen as one of the best-prepared Asian cities to deal with the new H1N1 flu virus, given its experience in handling sporadic outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu, as well as SARS in 2003 which killed 299 people. The order to seal off the Metropark hotel brought back memories of how SARS started in Hong Kong in February 2003. A doctor from mainland China who knew he had been infected with SARS had travelled to Hong Kong to try to seek medical help. But before he could get admitted to hospital, he infected eight people in a lift lobby of the Metropole hotel where he was staying. Some of them then went on to spread the disease in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Vietnam.
To tackle the H1N1 flu virus, Hong Kong authorities have beefed up surveillance at airports and hospitals, improved public health response systems and stockpiled over 20 million doses of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu.
rassis cruise ships!
I’d rather visit Bermuda.