Posted on 04/26/2009 3:53:34 PM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
Edited on 04/26/2009 4:01:12 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Ohio Department of Health says a 9-year-old boy who recently traveled to Mexico on vacation with his family has a confirmed case of swine flu.
Health department spokesman Robert Jennings said Sunday the boy is recovering at his home in Elyria, in northern Ohio's Lorain County. The child's name was not released.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox8.com ...
so not good
It doesn't really matter much whether this is a variation of swine flu or not. However you want to categorize it, it's one of those breakout mutations to which most of us will have no natural immunity against.
I suspect the reason it looks worse in Mexico is because that's where it first was discovered, and they have a longer period of experiencing it.
But there's no reason to believe it will preferentially kill Mexicans. The CDC has confirmed it's the same virus now being found here.
We have more access to Tamiflu and other antiviruls, but this does look pretty bad.
The thing that amazes me is that it only took one(?) alert doctor here in the US who submitted samples from their relatively ‘mild’ flu case to the CDC to alert MEXICO to the fact that this was not just a “late-season flu” as they were treating it for WEEKS through their medical professionals and how they were reporting it to the public.
The other thing is — in several other reports originating out of mexico they are saying that TAMIFLU ‘seems’ to work against this strain, but NOT ALWAYS. There is an anecdotal story supposedly from a doctor in Mexico reported through the BBC that stated although all the healthcare workers were innoculated with the ‘flu shot’, 2 interns STILL died, and supposedly there are many more healthcare workers that are sick that have NOT been reported officially (not surprising really).
I am taking this sort of personally because my family JUST got over a nasty flu which hit me completely differently than the rest of my family. My kids and husband had your “typical flu symptoms” — me on the other hand, one sneeze before bed when they were getting better, and in the middle of the night I woke up with a full-blown NASTY bronchial infection. The difference between me and my kids — my immune system is weakened due to a variety of medications I’m on for other medical problems. Part of me wonders if I should ask my doctors to take some samples of (yes, this is gross) some of the stuff I’m still coughing up and test it, just in case (even though I responded to antibiotics).
The other thing that kind of makes me upset on these threads is those who accuse people of “overreacting”. Overreacting would be trying to hoard medicines, avoiding all public contact, inducing panic attacks in oneself, etc... I don’t see ANY evidence in these postings that people are doing anything more than looking at all the angles and trying to get to the truth. We all know our media cannot be trusted to even get things right like direct quotes, and there are too many little bits and pieces of information (and in some cases those bits are changing over the last 24-48 hours — like what REALLY killed that archaeologist) to get a clear picture.
That’s what’s so awesome about FR — we can come together discuss these issues and use our COMBINED wisdom to try to QUELL fears, and RATIONALLY look at how to deal with the possibilities we are faced with.
Good reasonable summary.
THere are those who think this is overblown and a hoax with all kinds of speculation that drug companies are doing it for profit, Obama is doing it to quarantine us, etc.
The very same hoax people who cynically or ignorantly refuse to give credence to anybody dealing with this,,will, if this blows into a pandemic,,will be screaming why didn’t we do anything and threatening to sue everyone in sight.
This is a potential pandemic,,maybe bad, maybe not so bad,,but worth watching without panic and without paranoia and without cynicism.
seems like most of the traveler were in cancun which is very safe.
Agreed, and thanks for bringing up the point that they’ve been dealing with this in that area for weeks now.
I didn’t mean to imply that it will preferentially kill Mexicans (or that it will be more virulent in some ‘races’ vs. others), just that I can see how this would spread easier in some of the more rural, poorer parts of Mexico where people may be already suffering from nutritional deficiencies and don’t have access to quality health care. Not to mention that it is a common problem in poorer areas with less educated people that disease is spread more easily. (I admit I don’t know how much of a problem this is in Mexico overall nowadays (for instance Mexico City is a “modernized” city), compared to perhaps decades ago, or like what happens sometimes in the poorer regions of Africa — the spread of AIDS in those countries for instance).
Thanks again, you post makes a lot of sense regarding the “mortality” rate differences, and I will take that into account in my study of this subject from here on out. :)
I agree. It seems reasonable that the sickest folks were likely the ones hospitalized in Mexico, with many weaker cases flying under the radar (as have several FReepers who have posted they've had the flu in the last couple of weeks...could be this strain, maybe not, but none have been tested for it). That may be why the death rate seems so high in Mexico.
I'd expect the number of sick to increase exponentially here because NOW anyone with flu symptoms is going to see their doctor and be tested. So, a large increase in the next week or so may not necessarily mean the situation has worsened here.
What did the doctor do? She asked my symptoms and I gave them to her. She looked in my ears, nose, and throat. She listened to me breath with the stethoscope. She took my blood pressure and had me weigh in.
Then she said that I had what was likely a sinus infection, or possibly the flu. Gave me a prescription to an antibiotic and recommended a stronger antihistamine. Gave me a sample of some nasal steroid spray (which I promptly broke).
This is typical of the type of examination one gets when they get a cold or respiratory flu-like symptoms. I've never had an exam that involved isolating any particular strain of flu. And yet they're suddenly finding these cases of swine flu popping up here and there.
I think that this entire "swine flu" issue is a farce. Perhaps it's another government-invented "emergency" that will require a response that 'only government can provide'. I don't trust 'em a bit.
I wouldn't want to be in Mexico for any number of reasons (and I actually did live there for a few years in the 1950s when it was actually pretty nice).
I suspect the more rural areas of Mexico are the safest in terms of this illness. Probably the most dangerous place to be is Mexico City. Flu thrives on close contact, and it's the second biggest city on the planet.
Based on the limited and almost surely wrong information from Mexico, this flu has a 7.5% mortality rate. If we drop it down to the 2.5% mortality rate of the Spanish Flu from 100 years ago, it will still mean 450,000 residents of Mexico City would die.
Our atomic bombs on Japan didn't do that kind of damage.
Going into panic is not justified, but dismissing this as some sort of media or industry hoax is not sensible, either.
I frankly wish I weren't living in a large city. My odds of contracting this are probably much higher than if I lived in a rural community without international air travel.
I’d be happy to call it the MEXICAN anything. That much should be made clear.
Also...
The difference in mortality rates in Mexico vs. the “mildness” of symptoms in Americans, and folks from other more developed countries COULD be the result of Americans (and other “richer” countries) having a higher ‘baseline’ of general health, as well as better sanitation, availability of quality medical care, etc...”
Just waiting for our government to announce that our borders must remain open in order to share medical resources and compassionate access to proper care... so as to prevent more deaths in Mexico.
I agree with everything you’ve said up to the last sentence. :) As I posted on this thread, my family was also hit with the flu. The only one besides me that we brought in was my daughter who had a nasty sore throat and started having trouble swallowing due to the inflammation. She too (besides having a strep test done) received the same instructions minus the antibiotic. (In my case it hit me NOT as a flu, but as Acute Bronchitis due to either a bacterial or viral pathogen(don’t know if that’s the right word). In my case I responded VERY well to antibiotics - in fact my bronchitis might have been a pure COINCIDENCE really - and although I’m still recovering my children and hubby are almost 100% back to normal (some nagging coughing which is to be expected).
I guess what we really need to know to understand WHY this particular doctor thought to submit samples for testing in the first place. WHO the doctor or doctors were (perhaps they were already part of a study and ALL their patients had samples taken and submitted as part of an oversight of these various flu strains to begin with? I do know there ARE active studies of this nature going on CONSTANTLY nowadays in order to be prepared for which strain may hit during the next flu season).
I would caution that simply dismissing this out of hand may not be the best course of action. Again, not suggesting panic, or buying into every theory about this that comes along, but to completely dismiss this as some “conspiracy” seems naive, IMHO. Think of all the people that would have to be involved in a conspiracy of this sort — doctors, the CDC, WHO, the Mexican doctors, the DEAD patients, etc...
This virus is real, people have REALLY honestly died. Whether it has the potential of the dreaded pandemic the likes of the Plague during Medeival Times, or even the Spanish Influenza of 1918 is obviously up in the air (no pun intended). HOWEVER, at this point it would be better to be safe than sorry — especially until all the information on the whos, whats, whys and hows are “in”.
Another problem — our MSM SUCKS, and there is so much (even UNintentionally) faulty information or misinformation out there right now propagated by our media that it is NOT helping the average citizen of our world get a good handle on just how much caution we should be taking.
You may be pleasantly surprised to know that yesterday a Democrat Congressman called for our borders to be CLOSED IMMEDIATELY due to this disease... Heck, I don’t care if they ARE overreacting in that regard — anything that gets that wall built would be fine by me! LOL
Now, don’t assume I’m holding my breath that our bureaucrats in Washington will do the ‘right thing’, but at least SOMEONE in Congress has brought up the subject, and that’s a GOOD thing. This is actually something that (unfortunately) clearly demonstrates what many of us Anti-Illegal Immigration folks have been trying to warn about. Even if this turns out to be “overblown” — the NEXT time it may not be...
I suppose it would keep Hillary and Obama home a little more, but I don't know how that's good, either.
Understood... I was more referring to the problem of illegal immigrants bringing this disease with them than the necessary commerce and trade that goes through our official borders...
And, to use a “Jurassic Park” quote, no matter what we do to minimize this, if it truly is a virus capable of causing a pandemic “Nature will find a way”.
Yep, that’s the problem. We’ve now had confirmation of it in New Zealand, America, Spain, Mexico, and Canada.
It’s already out of the bag. China will probably be one of the last to report it, but when you hear it’s there, it’s global.
I’ve been looking for an article on that part of this! THANK YOU for posting it! :) Off to read that now...
Excellent point regarding the testing, and reported cases rising as information about this gets out. I would also imagine a ton of people who would assume they have the flu and would usually treat it themselves with OTC meds, fluids and rest will now be going in to their doctors as well demanding to be tested.
[Prayers for those doctors, medical professionals, and lab techs who are no doubt going to be working double overtime on this...]
That used to be the case for me as well every time, until January of this year when my doctor decided my symptoms merited a nasal swab. She then stuck a cotton swab so far up my nose I swear she was scraping my brain. It HURTS a lot.
The test showed I did have the flu and she prescribed Tamiflu, which my insurance didn't cover and set me back $125.
DS: To the best of my knowledge the reason they are still calling it “swine flu” in our media is because TWO of the genetic matches in this strain are the N. American Swine Flu, and the Asian/European Swine Flu. The combination of strains they’ve found is NOT false information.
You also have to take into consideration the education level of those in our media... [Remember the idiocy displayed in the election? To think they’d do any better with something even more complicated like medical issues, well... you get the idea].
IMHO, CDC better come up with a new name for this, and quite quickly, or you’re going to have a bunch of people who work in the agricultural industries thinking people are nuts for being worried about this AT ALL...
REGULAR swine flu (which one _portion_ of the genetic sequence of this NEW virus “matches”) — which has been around for QUITE a while is NOT transferable from human to human - is ONLY transferred between an infected pig to humans (for instance a pig farmer might get it, but the doctor coming to his home to treat him, or family members not in direct contact with the infected pig wouldn’t have been at risk — that is NOT the case with this flu).
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