Ahrcanum

Updated flu reports and posts at  https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/ah1n1-swine-flu-report/

Eye-chiwawa, a  strain of flu never seen before has killed up to 60 people in Mexico and 8 in the United States.   Reuters reports that the CDC analysis showed the disease is a mixture of swine, human and avian viruses.  Mexico’s health minister, José Ángel Córdova, said the virus had mutated from pigs and had at some point been transmitted to humans.  At least, he’s pretty sure.

A Mixture?  H5N1 does not’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hazardous mixed virus able to transmit easily to and among people.   That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created and it looks like Mexico City is ground zero for it’s spread. 

In February 2009, American pharmaceutical company Baxter made a mistake of catastrophic proportions.  Baxter manufactured and sent The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills bird flu vaccines that were found to contain a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabeled H5N1-otherwise known as the human form of Avian Flu. 

Avian Flu is one of the most deadly biological weapons on earth with a 60% kill rate.  Avir Green Hills sent the vaccines on to labs in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia.  https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/vaccine-drug-deadly-costs-mistakes-threaten-pandemic/   The contamination was realized in the Czech Republic where they inoculated ferrets with the product and they died unexpectedly from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.  Imagine if they had inoculated infants or an entire population rather than ferrets?  Imagine if a terrorist got a hold of this? 

Bloomberg News is reporting The World Health Organization in Geneva will declare the outbreak “a public health event of international concern” noting that it may raise the level of pandemic alert, which could lead to travel restrictions aimed at curbing the disease’s spread. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=atHtXtCigRII&refer=europe 

WHO has the world presently in phase 3: a new influenza virus subtype is causing disease in humans, but is not yet spreading efficiently and sustainable among humans.  “In my mind, what we’re talking about is moving from a pandemic alert 3 to a pandemic alert probably 5,” said Michael Gardam, director of infectious diseases prevention and control at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Level 5 indicates a new strain with significant human-to-human transmission. Level 6 is a pandemic. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090425.ILLNESS25ART2116/TPStory/National

Whatever threat level is assigned, and whomever raises the alert could result in border closures, travel and trade restrictions.  Mexico City is already in lockdown mode with schools, museums and libraries closed and soccer games being played to empty seats.  How far the lockdown goes is anyones guess.  I wonder what FEMA Zones may be impacted?  Craig Fugate, President Obama’s nominee to head FEMA, sailed through his confirmation hearing last week before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Welcome to your new job, dude.  

WHO estimates between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths annually from the seasonal flu strains H3N2, H1N1 and type B.  Experted from the NYTimes- Seasonal flus cause most of their deaths among infants, elderly people and the infirmed, but “pandemic flus — like the 1918 Spanish flu, and the 1957 and 1968 pandemics — often strike young, healthy people the hardest.  The leading theory on why so many young, healthy people die in pandemics is the “cytokine storm,” in which vigorous immune systems pour out antibodies to attack the new virus. That can inflame lung cells until they leak fluid, which can overwhelm the lungs. Despite the alarm in recent years over the H5N1 avian flu, which is still circulating in China, Indonesia, Egypt and elsewhere, some flu experts argued that it would never cause a pandemic, because no H5 strain ever had. All previous pandemics have been caused by H1s, H2s or H3s.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/world/americas/25mexico.html?_r=1&ref=world. 

There are no estimates for this most recent outbreak and there is no cure, only treatment and prevention. 

Currently there are four different antiviral drugs that are licensed for use in the US for the treatment of influenza: amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir. None of these antiviral medications exist in large quantities! http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/hsc-scen-3_flu-pandemic-medicine.htm.

The CDC is running its own investigation here http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/investigation.htm, most creatively saying wash your hands and that there is no vaccine available at this time.  Eye-chiwawa, indeed.

Vaccine photo props http://www.helpyourautisticchildblog.com/category/thimerosal/ and eye-chiwawa at http://pinkertonfx.deviantart.com/art/Eye-chiwawa-69317736

Correction- Damn it anyway, I hate it when I am wrong but glad that there weren’t 8 people who died in the US- rather 8 were identified as sick with the virus.

You might like OUR MOST POPULAR POST on the subject- https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/swine-flu-rash-hives-symptoms/  

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