The Swine Flu thing...

[Mawg]

It's influenza, people. Of *course* it's contagious! H1N1 isn't any more (or less) contagious than other forms of influenza and there isn't really much of anything to set it apart from other strains in terms of pathogenicity or disease course.

I will bet you that if the original outbreak had been in Germany or Italy or Canada we would barely have heard of it, if at all. This came right on the heels of the "Mexico is going to kill us all" drug cartel scare so it rode the tail of that hysteria to new heights.

I'm a physician who has several patients die each year of influenza (I treat the elderly). My wife is a molecular biologist who used to work with African hemorrhagic fever virus genome research. Each of us has plenty of respect for what viruses can do. Neither of us has seen or heard anything to make us think we need to do anything differently. The N95 face mask my hospital put on my desk is more dangerous to use than not to use since it fogs up my glasses and I can't properly see what I'm doing.

The voice of reason! How refreshing and unmistakeable. Had lunch with a friend over at NASA today who is in charge of the food research/dietary plan for shuttle/station and Mars exploration. One of the flight Doctors told her it was his opinion that the outbreak in Mexico City was heavier than elsewhere because of the very poor air quality in Mexico City. Peoples lungs there are already compromised/weakened from years of living there.

 

[lamont]

I will bet you that if the original outbreak had been in Germany or Italy or Canada we would barely have heard of it, if at all. This came right on the heels of the "Mexico is going to kill us all" drug cartel scare so it rode the tail of that hysteria to new heights.

Originally Mexico reported a 5% death rate and deaths among otherwise normally healthy people. That is why I freaked out, and why WHO and CDC sounded the alarm. Didn't matter which country it was coming from.

 

[lamont]

The voice of reason! How refreshing and unmistakeable. Had lunch with a friend over at NASA today who is in charge of the food research/dietary plan for shuttle/station and Mars exploration. One of the flight Doctors told her it was his opinion that the outbreak in Mexico City was heavier than elsewhere because of the very poor air quality in Mexico City. Peoples lungs there are already compromised/weakened from years of living there.

WHO already investigated for that and didn't find a correlation with bad air.

 

[jayjoans]

I hear they are taking temperatures at the Cozumel airport;
Bill

I think they took our temperature when we left Cozumel yesterday, either that or they just held a highlighter pen to our forehead.

Didn't bother me at all, but the rectal thermometer test we got upon arrival in Houston was a bit much.

 

[MMM]

I hear they are taking temperatures at the Cozumel airport; and wonder if that might not be a good idea permanently at airports around the world. Bill

That's a holdover from SARS. It was found an ineffective way of screening.

 

[sailldy67]

I'd be interested to know, of the people dying in Mexico, what their economic background is like. I know poorer people here have very unbalanced diet, very little fruit, unless free, almost no vegetables, except tomatoes and chilis. I know lots of families who live on tortillas, beans and eggs...who's kids go to school with chocolate milk as a nutritious breakfast. If the air quality has no effect on health, I would imagine bad nutrition may play a role.

 

[driftin' by]

I hear they are taking temperatures at the Cozumel airport; and wonder if that might not be a good idea permanently at airports around the world. Folks should probably not get on airplanes sick with a fever.

Just what we need... another delay at the airport! However, like with 9/11, if it keeps us safer, I'm all for it but I'm not sure this is the right approach. I seem to run hot at the airport because of aggravation.

 

[Mawg]

If the air quality has no effect on health, ........

I've been sitting here for 10 minutes now trying to figure out how to respond to this. I know that you know better.

 

[dive pro]

"secretaria de salud" is the news media?

i never even considered referring to your post, i was talking about "the telegraph post not your post at all

 

[lamont]

I've been sitting here for 10 minutes now trying to figure out how to respond to this. I know that you know better.

WHO also already looked at air quality as a factor in mexico city and ruled it out.

Really, if this question was simple enough that a bunch of scubadivers (even including the odd medical person) online could find a solution, then the medical experts wouldn't still consider it to be puzzling.

I thought that last I read that WHO was guessing it had to do with reporting bias (many milder cases not being reported) and with delays in seeking treatment leading to a higher fatality rate.