Posted on 04/25/2009 6:30:14 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
ATLANTA (AP) - Why has the swine flu engulfing Mexico been deadly there, but not in the United States?
Nearly all those who died in Mexico were between 20 and 40 years old, and they died of severe pneumonia from a flu-like illness believed caused by a unique swine flu virus.
The 11 U.S. victims cover a wider age range, as young as 9 to over 50. All those people either recovered or are recovering; at least two were hospitalized.
"So far we have been quite fortunate," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday, just hours before three new U.S. cases were confirmed.
Health experts worry about a flu that kills healthy young adults - a hallmark of the worst global flu epidemics. Deaths from most ordinary flu outbreaks occur among the very young and very old.
Why the two countries are experiencing the illness differently is puzzling public health experts, who say they frankly just don't know.
It may be that the bug only seems more deadly in Mexico.
And while experts believe Mexico is the epicenter of the outbreak, they're not certain if new cases are occurring or if the situation is getting worse. They also don't know if another virus might be circulating in Mexico that could be compounding the problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Idiots don’t make the obvious connection -
Mexicans have trouble getting medical care BECAUSE the gov’t provides health care.
Obviously the flu is made more severe by rolling r’s ...
no vaccines of any kind
seal the southern borders and deport illegal aliens:
reduce swine flu threat
reduce unemployment
reduce health costs
reduce education expenses
reduce government services
reduce crime
so, why not???
Based on what I know of the 1918 pandemic, I can think of several reasons:
1. Mexico City is much more crowded that US cities — even cities like New York City. More people closer together equals greater numbers exposed.
2. Personal distance in the US is wider than in Mexico (or virtually anywhere else in the world). The closer you are to someone, the greater the chances to get exposed.
3. I would bet that more Mexicans (even in Mexico City) live in closer proximity to more animals than in the US. Flu gets really deadly if it moves from one species to another. (This is one reason why so many influenzas come out of China — people living very close to poultry.
4. Influenza viruses love to swap. When two different strains meet in one body they trade bits of RNA. This creates a new type of influenza, which immune systems may not recognize. The result is deadly. (Note that 1, 2, and 3 give greater opportunities for this to occur.)
5. The average age in Mexico is lower than in the US. One of the reasons that influenzas get really deadly is when they trigger an overreaction by the immune system. Call it the “burn down the village to save it” syndrome. People literally drown in the products of their immune system going crazy. This overreaction typically happens in the healthiest people — young, healthy adults ages 20-45.
Note that this is not really a matter of health-care system, because for the most part, influenza is a battle between your immune system and the virus. There is no real cure, and most medicine (except for tammiflu) are ineffective against influenza viruses. Yeah, major hospitals help, but in an epidemic, you don’t have enough beds to provide really dramatic intervention in most of the cases. Being well-nourished helps, but only if you do not get some influenza that triggers an overreaction.
Stock up on bottled water, get tammiflu at the first sign of the flu, and hope you get lucky enough to be relatively immune or miss it completely.
Inside hospital sanitation is a good point, treatment being the same.
So to defend against a flu epidemic, you could become an alcoholic and drink your immune system into hibernation?
“So to defend against a flu epidemic, you could become an alcoholic and drink your immune system into hibernation?”
Might not be a bad short term strategy for this one, but probably produces greater long-term problems.
Why?
Socialized medicine and fecal matter in the air.
Let’s pray that Americans are paying attention....(before Obama and the democrats nationalize our health care in America)!
I'm not sure we have that much time. ;-)
We do not have a big enough sample of flu victims here to know the death rate. For a death rate of 5 percent you would have to have 20 victims for one death..we have fewer.
It sounds like a list you'd see on the Oprah show, right up until you get to the "ammo" part.
By the way, I'm not mocking you. I actually think having a couple weeks of emergency supplies is a great idea.
I say baloney.
This is about government “bailout” dollars.
Nothing more.
I had a third cousin who was about 19 at the time of the great flu epidemic. Both of his sisters died from it, a few days apart...one was 24 and the other 28. He also had several brothers but none of them died from the flu.
Finally, a crisis I'm prepared for as I've been in training for decades.
Maybe, 30 years ago many Americans got a swine flu vaccine that has made antibodies that are better able to attack the new variant.
Why bottled water?
For one thing hospitals in Mexico outside suck big time. DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY ...
Not in answer to your question but ...
What kind of country STILL can you not drink the water? Everyone drinks bottled water and soft drinks because the water is undrinkable.
Do we really have to wonder WHY the flu is worse in Mexico!
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