Chile Forum

I seen on CNN last night that they thought they found the index case 0. It was a 5 year old boy that was first diagnosed in Mexico. Given the complex mix of different strains, the poor kids is likly taking the fall for it. I have hard time believing it did not pass through a couple thousand people or more before he got sick to come up with that new strain.

We have our first death in the U.S.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30471035/

Does not seem there is anything special about the bug in Mexico.


There are moves being made to ban flights to Mexico from the EU, Argentina, Cuba.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/health/30flu.html?hp

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It seems Chile has eliminated 5 suspect cases as possibilities. There is what sounds like about 4-9 suspect cases pending. I think once Chile gets past that first 10 day period, where people possibly entered from Mexico or the U.S. before the monitoring was setup, it is possible for Chile to at least slow the spread more effectively than other countries just because the nature of the international airport system in Chile.

MikieO wrote:When you think about just how serious this is, the thought of being the vector that brought this Mexican flu to Chile would suck, given that there will probably be deaths.

Who's worried about flights from Mexico as a vector when MikieO has a flying pig?

James.

Here is a good article from Dr. Mercola, well-researched with plenty of footnotes, about this particular flu outbreak. He has a very level-headed and knowledgable outlook. He is the author of a book called Bird Flu Hoax. In the article, he discusses past flu pandemics, George W Bush's fear-mongering of avian flu in past years, possible sources for the virus, governmental responses, vaccines and other means of prevention. One interesting thing he pointed out: malaria kills 3,000 people A DAY, but there is very little governmental or media to-do about it. Perhaps, he suggests, because there is no fancy malaria vaccine someone stands to gain from.

Here is the link for the article:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... e-Flu.aspx

Here's a quote from the article:
"Please remember that, despite the fantastic headlines and projections of MILLIONS of deaths, the H5N1 bird flu virus killed a mere 257 people worldwide since late 2003. As unfortunate as those deaths are, 257 deaths worldwide from any disease, over the course of five years, simply does not constitute an emergency worthy of much attention, let alone fear!

"Honestly, your risk of being killed by a lightning strike in the last five years was about 2,300 percent higher than your risk of contracting and dying from the bird flu.6 I'm not kidding! In just one year (2004), more than 1,170 people died from lighting strikes, worldwide.7

"So please, as the numbers of confirmed swine flu cases are released, keep a level head and don't let fear run away with your brains."

JARobin wrote:. . . . [H]e pointed out: malaria kills 3,000 people A DAY, but there is very little governmental or media to-do about it. Perhaps, he suggests, because there is no fancy malaria vaccine someone stands to gain from. . . .

Or, more likely, because malaria, its effects, and its transmissibility have been observed and understood for generations. This particular influenza is not: it is still mysterious and could well become as easily contracted and as deadly as the Spanish 'flu' that swept the earth at the end of the First World War, or the Black Death that killed a third of all Europeans in the fourteenth century and nearly snuffed out the Renaissance.

Really, what most of us fear is the unknown. And fear generally trumps greed.

RWS wrote:
Really, what most of us fear is the unknown. And fear generally trumps greed.

The greedy understand this very well and use it to their advantage. That's why I posted Mercola's article. Knowledge dispels fear. Check out the article and find out the REAL cause of most of the Spanish flu deaths in 1918.

yea, the average run of the mill influenza A kills 250,000 to 500,000 every year. Swine flu still has a ways to go to be history making beyond the headlines.

WHO declares Level 5. They essentially said they are at level 6 at the press conference, but are waiting for data to come in.

As I understand it they need at least two regions of the world, with cross border spread, with confirmed human to human spread. What they have now is North America confirmed, but Europe and other countries just have confirmed cases from people returning from trips to Mexico. I guess they need confirmation that there is spread beyond those initially infected in Mexico.

Here's a link to an article with a more holistic perspective on what's happening.

http://www.lightparty.com/Health/SwineFlu2009.html

I do believe the article is correct when it says that it's important that we don't fall into fear. Fear can be so manipulative and it really doesn't serve us to go there.

....Anani

Amen, "Anani".