A new strain of swine flu has been confirmed in 18 deaths in Mexico, and is suspected as the cause of another 63 deaths (for a total of 81) and 1,324 illnesses. Yesterday, 5,289 people showed up at health centers in Mexico’s Federal District (which includes Mexico City) with respiratory symptoms.
CDC reports that 11 cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) have been confirmed in the US (7 in California, 2 in Texas, and 2 in Kansas). These cases have been mild. Additional potential cases have been reported in New York among students who recently visited Mexico.
Swine flu is fairly common, but it’s usually only transmitted from pigs to humans. This new strain appears to be capable of human-to-human transmission, and it’s also sickening young, otherwise-healthy adults. This means the virus has the serious potential to cause a pandemic (see DemFromCT for more on this virus’s pandemic potential), so it’s appropriate that Mexico has closed schools until May 6 and barred large public gatherings, including church services. Other countries have issued travel warnings and are investigating cases of flu-like symptoms.
CDC and WHO have both made this a top priority and are holding regular news briefings on it. Revere at Effect Measure says that WHO’s failure to update the pandemic alert level from 3 to 4 shows that these “descriptions are meaningless and have nothing to do with what is happening on the ground.”
Sources: El Universal, CDC, WHO, Associated Press,
Blogs tracking the outbreak: Effect Measure, DemFromCT at Daily Kos, Aetiology, FluWiki
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April 26, 2009 at 10:17 pm
swine flu symptoms
Be interesting to see what if any impact this swine flu issue has on the desire of some to increase urban density afterall some will argue that increased density will help diseases spread.
April 27, 2009 at 6:22 pm
MM
I posted this on another page of this website, but my letter may be even more applicable here in light of the recent out break: To wit:
I’m not a doctor, but I have a thought on the subject for what it’s worth. Though my friends think I’m crazy, defying conventional scientific wisdom, I’ve been skeptical about how transmittable ariborne flu viruses are in open air, esp. outdoors. So this (paper on this site discussing the transmission of airborne flu in contaminated hospital rooms) paper caught my attention. Not to dismiss the flu aerosols, esp in closed areas like school classrooms for instance, but my attention is directed to the potential mode of transmission thru eating establishments, or whereever food is involved and people get together. Perhaps we are eating contaminated food,( or our fingers are picking up flu from surfaces, that goes to our food or directly to our mouths), more than we realize is the gist of my hypothesis here.
I believe I have experienced this first hand myself being sick with influenza (not food poisoning) on a few occassions. I noticed that in many situations were the occassion is to share a meal with others, a house, a restaurant, etc, there is often at least one person sick. Often it’s the cook, the waitress bringing the plate of food, or if a potluck, or salad bar, any number of diners can transmit their germs to the community food. And perhaps they are unwary of their developing illness, being in the initial stages, but still very contagious.
I also observe patrons of eating establishments, and poor manners as it is, quite often people eat with their fingers, that is they have to smack the food off their fingers, then their fingers are everywhere else. I’ve seen them dunk their fingers in salad bars as well. I’ve witnessed a whole family, adults and kids, all with a cough, and all sticking their fingers in their mouths, and then their hands touch tables, chairs, etc. Perhaps the virus in addition, the virus can be present in several areas around the eating are from patrons sticking their fingers in their mouths, or coughing on surfaces, and unwary patrons come and pick up those germs to their hands and ultimately to their mouths while they eat.
I recently contacted a mild cold or flu, and I believe I can trace the source to a cook in one of the local fast foods. Last year I got a good dose of the flu and I believe I traced that to a potluck of about 30 people, and I was the last to serve myself from the food pot. Recently the cashier in the grocery store was sick I noticed, and thought that every bit of food that I buy may have some of her germs on it.
To conclude, I suspect that flu and cold transmission via areas of served food may be contaminated by either cooks, servers or patrons, and that perhaps this is a widely underestimated mode of transmision. If that can be of any help whatsoever so much the better. Mark Miller
April 27 2009
June 11, 2009 at 2:22 pm
MM
Maybe I’m wrong with my theory that flu spread can come thru food that has been contaminated with flu germs and that mode of transmission is widely underestimated?
Doing some more searching today, virtually every website I’ve viewed (including CDC spokespeople) state flatly that “flu can not be spread by eating food”.
This is perplexing because in the same breadth practically, it is stated that flu can be spread by picking up germs with your fingers and then touching your eyes or mouth. How can this be? That is if a food caterer, who is sick with flu and/or carries flu germs, sneezes or coughs in the vicinity of your food, then it would seem that those germs, the aerosols (small and large) can settle on your meal and that as you eat that food, those germs are entering your body. Food must pass thru the mouth, so how can that statement above be true?
Maybe germs entering the stomach don’t stand a chance in that kind of environment? Or or flu bugs in the stomach equally as virulent as the repiratory tract? I would like to be informed on this. Thanks.
June 12, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Liz
MM, I expect that the advice about flu not being spread by food is meant to reassure people that eating, say, the meat of a pig that had swine flu is not a mode of virus transmission.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about how flu is transmitted, but aerosols are a likely suspect, and exposure via the mucous membranes in your eyes and nose a likely route.