That was my question. I thought I saw something that said the Mexican deaths were due to pneumonia but I will go back and check. If so, it makes Besser's answer even weirder.
Why Confirmed Cases Are So Low ...
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D97TR2582.html
Commissioner: Flu testing load a ‘challenge’
05/02/2009
By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press
Keeping up with lab testing of suspected swine flu samples from around the state has been difficult in dealing with the outbreak in Texas, where 28 cases are confirmed, Health Commissioner Dr. David Lakey said Friday.
“The challenge has been that a lot of samples have been sent,” Lakey told doctors at a Texas Medical Association meeting. He said he’s working to arrange for extra equipment and people to step up the pace of the testing in response to demand.
Lakey said he wants to get results out more quickly so local officials can make public health decisions.
[snip]
Lakey repeated that the state has 1.7 million antiviral courses in place at the moment, in addition to antiviral doses available in the private sector.
“I don’t want you to have to delay putting somebody on medicines waiting for our confirmation tests,” he said.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said in Friday’s online edition of the Austin American-Statesman that only 181 of 2,492 nasal swabs from around the state have been tested so far.
Spokesman Doug McBride said the agency’s one machine couldn’t keep up with the number of samples received. He said they are adding three more machines, training more staff, running two shifts and operating the lab seven days a week.
More than 1,500 samples were sent from Travis County, local officials said, adding that many weren’t believed to be possible swine flu cases but were sent as a precaution.
Dr. Edward Sherwood, chair of the TMA’s infectious diseases committee, said he did not know the precise turnaround time for testing samples, but estimated it at three to five days based on information he was given. He noted that often by the fifth day of an ordinary flu illness the patient is beginning to feel better.
Sherwood explained that rapid flu tests can be conducted in a doctor’s office, but those are not as precise as viral culture and polymerase chain reaction tests that are conducted in a laboratory and can pinpoint swine flu, technically called the H1N1 virus.
Guadalupe County leads the state with nine confirmed cases, and county judge Mike Wiggins said Thursday there are another 14 “highly probable” cases and about 100 suspected cases awaiting further testing. He said the backlog in testing has gone from getting confirmation as quickly as within 24 hours to potentially as long as a week.
[snip]
“What we’re doing now, we’re looking at cases of high probability more so than confirmation of cases because it’s taking so long,” Wiggins said.
One doctor asked Lakey on Friday what the threshold should be for sending in a sample for confirmation testing. Lakey said if there are no confirmed cases in an area, but there is a suspected case, that would be an important sample to test so that public health officials can make informed decisions. Other criteria include how sick a patient is and whether the patient is hospitalized, he said.
Sherwood said he thinks the government and public response to the new strain of flu is an “appropriate overreaction.”
“Better to close the schools and be criticized later than to not close the schools and have some dire consequences for the children,” he said.