Canada on alert after respiratory illnesses reported in Mexico

Calgary Herald ^ | April 22, 2009 | Canwest News Service

[justsaynomore]

OTTAWA — The Public Health Agency of Canada has told quarantine services to be on alert for travellers returning from Mexico after a number of severe respiratory illnesses (SRI) were reported in some regions of the country.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Health/Canada+alert+after+respiratory+illnesses+reported+Mexico/1523180/story.html

[ex-Texan]

If you want to believe that 'bad vitamin' story go right ahead. I say it's a total crock.

They dropped like domino pieces. Twenty-one of the world's most highly bred, intensively trained and lovingly groomed horses wobbled, shook and then collapsed dead in front of their traumatised carers in minutes. Nearby, hundreds of spectators were sipping from champagne flutes

The horses were all poisoned. The Internet is abuzz with rumors. The vitamin explanation is pure bovine squat.

[Ditter]

What were you diagnosed with and what medications were you given?

[Quix]

Don’t we know it!

Want to get well and get the pneumonia vaccine booster.

The saline sinus wash seems to be helping a lot. . . . am now adding 2 drops of POVIDONE (must be that type) to the solution.

Mama Dearest is the encourager on that score.

Health and wholeness to you and yours.

Did my last several messages to you offer you anything useful, practical???

LUB

[BellStar]

Mexico is a public health cesspool !

[BellStar]

"I say it's a total crock."

What is your best guess?

[El Gato]

The horses were all poisoned. The Internet is abuzz with rumors. The vitamin explanation is pure bovine squat.

Many vitamins are poison. Taken in large does of course. For example see this article on Cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) Poisoning.

But since the articles do not say what ingredient was the one which was over supplied, it's hard to say if it could have caused the deaths or not.

[McGavin999]

The doctor said it was a “super bug” (this was 3 years ago). He gave me prednisone and some heavy duty antibiotic that you only take once a day. That almost killed me since I had never taken an antibiotic in my life. It was so bad that I couldn’t lay down and it got worse quickly. I was sitting right by the phone but I couldn’t reach it to call for an ambulance. I can remember thinking “so, this is what it’s like to die”. It took almost 6 months to recover from it.

[Judith Anne]

I’m taking a wait and see approach. I think we’ll only know in retrospect if this is a herald wave; if I remember correctly, the herald waves are a less lethal version but fairly widespread.

But, my eyes are wide open, and I’m interested in any kind of news we can get.

[Palladin]

You mean a dry run?

Very scary.

[Ditter]

Sounds horrible! Some kind of viral infection I guess. I had bronchial pneumonia years ago and I felt kind of like that. I felt like I had been run over by a train, coughing up blood. It took me a while to get over it but not six months.

[McGavin999]

Nope, no blood with me, and it wasn't pneumonia, although from what I have read it's similar. It was some bug that come up over the border. The doctor said it's because they have access to antibiotics but never take a full coarse and so the bugs get stronger and stronger. I coughed so much that my diaphrame got so tired it would hardly work.

I let it go too long because I was so strong and was not used to getting sick so I didn't realize how bad it was until it was almost too late.

[SisterK]

A couple of days ago I was talking to a dear friend in NC and he said that folks are coughing up blood there. He was. Folks in southern rural NC are going to the hospital with blood in their lungs. It is too late to call there now, but I will try to call him in the morning (with this news) and learn more. Influenza should not be a surprise. I remember Free Republic had a thread going on just a few months ago. We were discussing the government exuming bodies that died during the 1918 pandemic for research purposes. Reckon they got what they wanted?

[justsaynomore]

More news:

Jim Goddard VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) | Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 2:12 pm http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20090423_181414_5340

“The disease exhibits flu-like symptoms and those hit hardest ended up needing breathing support in hospital. “

“Dr. Danuta Skowronski from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control says it has killed up to 15 per cent of the people who come down with severe flu like symptoms. Doctors in Mexico are most concerned that it has killed people between the ages of 20 and 50, an age group which normally has a very low mortality rate for respiratory illnesses. “

AND
Schools closed in Mexico City due to influenza
http://www.exonline.com.mx/diario/noticia/primera/pulsonacional/manana_suspenden_clases_en_df_y_edomex/579248

April 23, 2009
Tomorrow classes will be suspended in Mexico City and the State of Mexico [”Edomex”, the state surrounding Mexico City]

“The Health Secretary, José Ángel Córdova Villalobos, announced that this Friday classes in public and private facilities at all levels of the Federal District and State of Mexico will be suspended, because of the high level of cases of influenza in the country.”

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

Mexico shuts schools over deadly influenza epidemic

MEXICO CITY: Mexican authorities on Friday closed all schools in the capital and central Mexico as the WHO announced hundreds of human cases of swine flu in the country, including 57 suspected deaths.

[BP2]

IF there's a link between this virus and that of 1918, watch for this (from an article on Sep 26, 2006):

1918 Spanish Flu Made Body Kill Its Own Cells

American scientists believe that the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic was so deadly because it triggered a tremendous immune response in the human body which made it destroy its own cells. Spanish Flu was estimated to have killed over 50 million people - young adults were worst hit.

You can read about this new study in the journal Nature.

Researchers infected mice with a reconstructed H1N1 virus. They observed that not only did the mice suffer severe lung disease, but also their immune systems responded ferociously to the infection - the immune response continued for several days after they had died. Most of the mice became seriously ill within 24 hours and died within five days.

Team leader, Dr John Kash, University of Washington, said "What we think is happening is that the host's inflammatory response is being highly activated by the virus, and that response is making the virus much more damaging to the host. The host's immune system may be overreacting and killing off too many cells, and that may be a key contributor to what makes this virus more pathogenic."

The team would like to find out exactly why the immune system responds so aggressively, but fails to destroy the infection. Finding this out might help us find a way of fighting the present H5N1 avian flu virus strain.

The world population in 1918 was about 1.8 billion (US Census Bureau). Today it is about 6.5 billion. In 1918 3.6% of the world's population died from Spanish flu. 3.6% of today's global population is 234 million.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the link.

[Palladin]

Very interesting.

[Palladin]

BTTT

[Tucker822]

Thanks for providing this information and the updates. I’ll be prepared. I hope people will wake up and take notice of this instead of treating it like it’s nothing. This is very important and everyone needs to pay attention to it.

[fanfan]

You should never go to Tijuana.

How are you feeling?