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New Flu Strain Appears In the US and Mexico

Posted by Soulskill on from the fluent-in-english-and-spanish dept.

Combat Wombat writes with this excerpt from Reuters: "A strain of flu never seen before has killed up to 60 people in Mexico and also appeared in the United States, where eight people were infected but recovered, health officials said on Friday. Mexico's government said at least 20 people have died of the flu and it may also be responsible for 40 other deaths. [The government] shut down schools and canceled major public events in Mexico City to try to prevent more deaths in the sprawling, overcrowded capital. ... Close analysis showed the disease is a mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the CDC. Humans can occasionally catch swine flu from pigs but rarely have they been known to pass it on to other people. Mexico reported 1,004 suspected cases of the new virus, including four possible cases in Mexicali on the border with California.

4 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. Cancel Air Flight; Limit Damage to the Americas by wintermute1974 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Before this spreads unnecessarily, this would be an ideal time to limit air flight in and out of the Americas.

    We as a species are putting everyone at risk by allowing unlimited, unrestricted, near-instantaneous travel from point to point on the globe.

    Shipping cargo can continue of course; if the crew get sick en route, they can always be quarantined off the coast of wherever they arrive.

  2. Young Adults by copponex · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thought the reason it was so bad is because many of the dead are young adults. That's one of the milestones of a really dangerous pandemic, right?

  3. Re:Artificially Created Strain of H1N1? by jmulvey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think the chances of this being bio-terrorism just clicked up a notch: According to this article:
    The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama's trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico's anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn't confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.

  4. Re:Delayed by Ex-MislTech · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well as weird as it seems some doctors in Mexico are claiming
    they are under reporting the death toll to prevent panic.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm

    They are saying over 200 at this point, and if that is true
    that would put this more on par with the 1918 pandemic.

    Let's hope it is not true...

    --
    google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"