Swine Flu Infecting Some in Southwest US Turns Virulent and Deadly in Mexico City

A new version of mixed human, bird, and swine flu that crossed from pigs to humans and mutated to transmit directly between people has been shown to have killed 16 in Mexico City and may have killed up to 60.

The flu is especially disturbing because is tends to kill healthy adults in the pandemic manner, instead of the very young or very old like the flu we usually see during the yearly bouts of the influence virus.  This flu is also emerging at the end of the flu season.  Some experts think this might signal a virulent spread is possible.

Schools in Mexico City were closed Friday to help slow the spread and people have been advised to avoid crowds, but reports of the infection come in from San Antonio Texas and Imperial and San Diego Counties in CA (both CA counties are near the Mexican border). 

Some small good news related by the New York Times in "Mexico Shuts Some Schools Amid Deadly Flu Outbreak " is that although older flu medicines will not help with this virus, Tamiflu and  Relenza will currently help according to the New York Times on information that was most likely distributed to them from the government's own CDC and therefore is not the New York Time's property of the Times but of the American people, though I thank them for collecting it and passing it on, since no other of my sources seems to have done so.

But the CDC seems to have told the Times the swine flu is a H1N1 version and this year's human H1N1 version of the flu was resistant to Tamiflu, which means that the resistance could easily spread. 

The LAT hosts information from the CDC in "How swine flu spreads in humans " that includes a notice that the seasonal flu vaccine used this year will not protect from this flu, but  according to the agency properly handled and cooked pork should pose no problem.  (This means to take care, just like with avoiding trichinosis, to not transmit anything from raw to cooked pork says common sense.)

A Canadian official from the public health authority tries to calm fears as reported by Reuters in "Swine flu not as serious as SARS: Ontario " saying that unlike with SARS any flu is a known entity, and authorities are saying that medicines are stockpiled to fight flu already (though maybe not in Mexico City).

See the sources above for further details. If the NYT asks for a registration, at this time it is free, just sign up with an email and click your way out of receiving newsletters if you want no bother from the Gray Lady.  

tags: swine flu  mexico  texas  california  pandemic  sars  tamiflu  

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