by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: April 30, 2009   Last Updated: May 05, 2009

The first alert about an unusual amount of an abnormal or 'atypical' mount of respiratory ailments came from Mexico. As of April 30, 2009, 159 deaths, 2,498 infections were reported. Most had not been specifically identified as swine flu related. More to the point of actual cases of this particular strain of flu were 91 cases and 8 deaths. On the 26th of March they noted a health alert of a respiratory outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State Mexico.

It seems Mexican medical authorities were puzzled by this strange outburst of flu like symptoms so late in the season. (The flu season is generally from October to February.) The symptoms were "fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm". After a few deaths the residents were becoming alarmed and were pointing the blame on a local pig farm. This proved not to be the case but the local medical authorities check out all possibilities. Epidemiological investigations began.

This virus, the H1N1 Swine type virus is not connected to corona virus, the cold virus, nor has it any connection with the dreaded bird flu. Investigations are ongoing and at the date and time of this writing, April, 30, 2009, the near panic over this disease with potential pandemic proportions continues. On April, 21, to continue the Biosurveillance site's tracking of the disease, two adults died from this atypical respiratory disease' at a hospital in Oaxaca, Oaxaca State, Mexico. One, a 39 year old female was at the hospital five day before her death. She had three strikes against her: she was "a diabetic, had diarrhea, and was immunocompromised". In other words, her immune system was not up to par.

Mexico's national health system hospital (IMSS) is working diligently to understand what is causing this outbreak. The Institute Mexican del Seguro Social says all patients with flu-like symptoms are to be studied at the epidemiological department. In other words all patients with certain symptoms were to be admitted. As of this April 22nd report from Biosurveillance, their emergency rooms were closed for an additional fifteen days for cleaning and a thorough disinfecting.

Much of the information for this article came from a disease tracking online site. They operate in two US cities, Washington, DC and Seattle Washington. Their first notes mention that on March 30, 2009 a 47 year old Canadian, who had returned home from Mexico March, 22 was in a coma at an Ottawa hospital with respiratory distress. He was on a respirator.

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