Swine Flu : Why are people dying in Mexico but not in the U.S.?
Will fatalities arise once swine flu instances spread here in the U.S.? Or is there some specific factor that is causing those south of the border to die and not us? They say it is the same H1N1 virus that they detected in the American victims in the U.S., was what killed the Mexican victims. And should this flu become a true pandemic, is it possible for this episode this time to be as lethal as was the pandemic in 1918, after so many advances in medical technology? (it has, after all, been 91 years since the Spanish flu.)
Here’s some guesses
Swine Flu and the Mexico Mystery
Why does the swine flu seem to be more deadly in Mexico?
By David Dobbs
Posted Monday, April 27, 2009, at 3:20 PM ET
Of the two qualities vital to a nasty pandemic—to spread readily and to be deadly—this flu, a brand-new strain of swine flu, or H1N1, seems to possess the first: Evidence is strong that it spreads readily among humans. In Mexico, it has reportedly killed about 100 of the 1,600 official suspected cases; elsewhere, it has appeared to take a far milder course, with zero deaths out of approximately 300 instances. There are several possible explanations for this discrepancy—any one, two, all, or none of these ideas could shed light on how deadly this virus might prove. In order of ascending likelihood for Mexico’s higher mortality:
1) Perhaps population-level genetic differences render the U.S. population more resistant to this strains effects than the Mexican population.
2) We’re really looking at two different viruses, but WHO and the CDC haven’t picked up on it.
3) Some secondary health issue present in Mexico but not elsewhere—another bug common in the population or in hospitals—is combining with the swine flu to make it more deadly there.
4) Some difference in the way we’re tracking and counting cases—a “surveillance difference”—is making the Mexico situation seem worse than it is and the U.S. situation seem better than it really is.
This is a virtual certainty—but with implications that are highly uncertain.
Derrick Jensen – Don´t fear the bears
