Travel advisory warns of severe respiratory illness in Mexico

MistyM

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This is from a Canadian website, because I'm Canadian, but I think it's double important for Americans too. Just thought I would give everyone a heads up to watch out for any weird symptoms and to be careful...

Travel advisory warns of severe respiratory illness in Mexico

20 die from severe respiratory illness in Mexico

Canadians who have recently returned from Mexico should be on alert for flu-like symptoms that could be connected to a severe respiratory illness, federal health officials said Thursday in issuing a travel advisory.
A severe respiratory illness appears to have infected 137 people in south and central areas of Mexico, with cases concentrated in Mexico City and three other areas, including 20 deaths, the Public Health Agency of Canada said.
In the United States, health officials in Texas and California were scrambling this week to deal with a new strain of swine flu, which has been diagnosed in seven people.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/04/23/respiratory-illness-flu-mexico.html
 
I had read about Mexico and the U.S. flu earlier and wonder if they're the same thing or related. The Mexico flu seems to affect younger people the worst, but don't know about the swine flu. I went straight to the health section at the grocery store and bought a little bottle of elderberry extract which is supposed to help with the flu once you start showing symptoms.
 
Alert Issued After Serious Mystery Ailment Affects Canadians Returning From Mexico

Thursday April 23, 2009
CityNews.ca Staff
It's supposed to be a place where you can get away from it all. But now Canadian travellers to Mexico may be bringing something back with them that's far more serious than just a souvenir.
Experts are becoming increasingly concerned about a mysterious illness that's recalling the frightening days of SARS in Toronto. The Public Health Agency of Canada is looking into a growing number of reports about Canadians returning from the south and central parts of the country with a severe respiratory illness.
The mystery malady has puzzled experts both here and in Mexico, who have yet to identify exactly what it is. The ailment seems to primarily affect young adults who went on their trips healthy but failed to return in the same condition.
The symptoms begin as a flu-like illness and rapidly deteriorate to respiratory distress and breathing difficulties.



http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_33963.aspx
 
I had read about Mexico and the U.S. flu earlier and wonder if they're the same thing or related. I went straight to the health section at the grocery store and bought a little bottle of elderberry extract which is supposed to help with the flu once you start showing symptoms.


if you can't afford elderberry extract (i use sambucol) oil of oregano is very good too. BUT this seems to be affecting young adults between 25 to 44. which is quite similar to the 1918 flu. because this age group is healthy and young their bodies go into a cytokine storm and that is what kills/ed them.

"We think of external microbes as our worst enemy during an outbreak of influenza or bronchitis but our own immune system is potentially more lethal. When our body detects foreign microorganisms indicating an infection, our body might respond by over-protecting the site of infection. The body may race so many antibodies to the infection site that they collect in a cytokine storm. When the infection is in the lungs, for example, a cytokine storm can potentially block airways and result in suffocation. Medical researchers have identified the causes and stages of the cytokine storm and are working on treatments to weaken an overactive immune response."

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-cytokine-storm.htm
 
WHO - World Health Organization keeping a close eye on this one!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hqvUky7Db4m9TlO-2L8Z4q2vDJbw

Swine flu kills 60 in Mexico, moves to US: WHO
1 hour ago

GENEVA (AFP)

A rare outbreak of human swine flu has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and spread to the United States where authorities are on alert, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

The WHO has identified swine influenza as a potential source of a human flu pandemic. Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the UN health agency, said hundreds of cases of suspected swine flu -- which regularly hits pigs but rarely affects humans -- have been reported in Mexico.

"To date there have been some 800 suspected cases with flu-like illness, with 57 deaths in the Mexico City area," Chaib added.

Twenty four suspected cases and three deaths were also recorded in San Luis Potosi in central Mexico.

Chaib said there are now seven known cases in the southwestern United States in three clusters -- five in California and two in Texas.

"Meanwhile in Mexico unusual end of season influenza activity began to be noticed at the end of March, peaking in April," the spokeswoman told journalists.

"The virus is being described in the United States as a new subtype of A/H1N1. Mexico so far hasn't said anything about the virus, what type of virus it is," said Chaib.

Most of the Mexican cases were found in healthy young adults with no known record of prior illness.
The WHO said it was in constant contact with health authorities in the United States and in Mexico.

Human outbreaks of H1N1 swine influenza virus were recorded in the United States in 1976 and 1988, when two deaths were recorded, and in 1986. In 1988 a pregnant woman died after contact with sick pigs according to the WHO.

In recent years the global focus for a pandemic has shifted to the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has spread from poultry to humans, especially in Asia.
 
that's a pretty high deathrate. higher than the 1918 flu. (so far)
 
Last night on the 10 o'clock news they did a blurb about there have been people here in Texas that have been diagnosed with this strain.

I'm watching closely.
 
Here is a local article for Texas:

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/43568992.html

April 23, 2009

snippet of interest:

The Texas cases are 16-year-old boys who are friends and live in
Guadalupe County, near San Antonio.

Also, one of the California cases, a 10-year-old boy, traveled
to Dallas this month.

Less than a week ago, the CDC announced it had identified the illness in two children in southern California and said viruses from the two cases were closely related and contained “a unique combination of gene segments that previously has not been reported among swine or human influenza viruses in the United States or elsewhere.”

Interesting.
 
thanks for replying. i'm keeping an eye out on it too. they are worried because flu season is almost over and it's hurting healthy young adults the worst. this could very well be the start of a bad pandemic. " it's an unusual even and a cause for heightened concern" - said a spokesman from the WHO. it's on the news in canada right now, you can see the reports on youtube.
 
if you can't afford elderberry extract (i use sambucol) oil of oregano is very good too. BUT this seems to be affecting young adults between 25 to 44. which is quite similar to the 1918 flu. because this age group is healthy and young their bodies go into a cytokine storm and that is what kills/ed them.

"We think of external microbes as our worst enemy during an outbreak of influenza or bronchitis but our own immune system is potentially more lethal. When our body detects foreign microorganisms indicating an infection, our body might respond by over-protecting the site of infection. The body may race so many antibodies to the infection site that they collect in a cytokine storm. When the infection is in the lungs, for example, a cytokine storm can potentially block airways and result in suffocation. Medical researchers have identified the causes and stages of the cytokine storm and are working on treatments to weaken an overactive immune response."

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-cytokine-storm.htm


I was reading about cytokine storm and elderberry. It was said that elderberry does stimulate the immune system but has been proven to prevent flu virus from multiplying so it could be useful. I'd have to search and find it again, but also saw something saying that drinking sugar water might help prevent cytokine storm. My 14 year old grandson had flulike symptoms and very deep cough last week. We got him right to the doctor who diagnosed flu, but I wonder if it was this new flu here in Texas.
 
i think there are alot of people in the USA right now who have this, but don't know it. fortunately no one has died yet in your country. But there are suspicious cases being reported.

NYC HEATH DEPARTMENT: 75 KIDS SICKENED AT 1 SCHOOL


Associated Press :


NYC HEATH DEPARTMENT: 75 KIDS SICKENED AT 1 SCHOOL
April 24, 2009

New York City health officials say that about 75 students at a Queens high school have fallen ill with flu-like symptoms and testing is under way to rule out the strain of swine flu that has killed dozens in Mexico.

The Health Department's Dr. Don Weiss said Friday that a team of agency doctors and investigators were dispatched to the private St. Francis Preparatory School the previous day after students reported fever, sore throat, cough, aches and pains. No one has been hospitalized.

The handful of sick students who remained at the school were tested for a variety of flu strains. If they're found to have a known human strain that would rule out swine flu.

Results could take several days.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/0424200...ath_department__75_kids_sickened_a_166051.htm
 
Influenza-like illness in the United States and Mexico

24 April 2009 -- The United States Government has reported seven confirmed human cases of Swine Influenza A/H1N1 in the USA (five in California and two in Texas) and nine suspect cases. All seven confirmed cases had mild Influenza-Like Illness (ILI), with only one requiring brief hospitalization. No deaths have been reported.

The Government of Mexico has reported three separate events. In the Federal District of Mexico, surveillance began picking up cases of ILI starting 18 March. The number of cases has risen steadily through April and as of 23 April there are now more than 854 cases of pneumonia from the capital. Of those, 59 have died. In San Luis Potosi, in central Mexico, 24 cases of ILI, with three deaths, have been reported. And from Mexicali, near the border with the United States, four cases of ILI, with no deaths, have been reported.
Of the Mexican cases, 18 have been laboratory confirmed in Canada as Swine Influenza A/H1N1, while 12 of those are genetically identical to the Swine Influenza A/H1N1 viruses from California.


The majority of these cases have occurred in otherwise healthy young adults. Influenza normally affects the very young and the very old, but these age groups have not been heavily affected in Mexico.
Because there are human cases associated with an animal influenza virus, and because of the geographical spread of multiple community outbreaks, plus the somewhat unusual age groups affected, these events are of high concern.


The Swine Influenza A/H1N1 viruses characterized in this outbreak have not been previously detected in pigs or humans. The viruses so far characterized have been sensitive to oseltamivir, but resistant to both amantadine and rimantadine.


The World Health Organization has been in constant contact with the health authorities in the United States, Mexico and Canada in order to better understand the risk which these ILI events pose. WHO (and PAHO) is sending missions of experts to Mexico to work with health authorities there. It is helping its Member States to increase field epidemiology activities, laboratory diagnosis and clinical management. Moreover, WHO's partners in the Global Alert and Response Network have been alerted and are ready to assist as requested by the Member States.
WHO acknowledges the United States and Mexico for their proactive reporting and their collaboration with WHO and will continue to work with Member States to further characterize the outbreak.


http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_24/en/index.html
 
This has me truly a little shaken. As with many others, I will keep an eye on this one.
 

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