US declares public health emergency for swine flu

my wife is very sick...chest cold, mild fever.
We got back to Canada on April 7, from a 2 week trip to Rincon Guayabitos which is about 100 km north of Puerto Vallarta. During this time millions of Mexicans head to the beach resorts during Easter Week... kind of a Mardi Gras type atmosphere. Millions from Mexico City and Guadalajara mix with us "western folk".

My wife is a nurse, they are refusing to let her go back to work until tests come back.

Originally posted by wrathchild
my wife is very sick...chest cold, mild fever.
We got back to Canada on April 7, from a 2 week trip to Rincon Guayabitos which is about 100 km north of Puerto Vallarta. During this time millions of Mexicans head to the beach resorts during Easter Week... kind of a Mardi Gras type atmosphere. Millions from Mexico City and Guadalajara mix with us "western folk".

My wife is a nurse, they are refusing to let her go back to work until tests come back.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife, and hope and pray for her return to health.

may i ask where in Canada you are located. i'm in Edmonton, and concerned.

Originally posted by QueenofWeird
reply to post by Power_Semi

 

I guess you are not that impressed with the qualities of plants and the like

. Too bad for you.

Well I like lettuce.

Now seriously.

I have been thinking that this is being blown out of all proportion since no one outside of Mexico has been that ill.

However.....


I spoke to a doctor friend this evening (I'm in the UK) and he said a notification has been sent around to all GPs (doctors) today from the government saying in essence that if anyone presents with the symptoms they are to be told that the government have plenty of vaccines/treatments available (they have 33 million lots of tamiflu supposedly), but that in actual fact they haven't got any idea what to actually do to treat patients should it spread.

Make of that what you will.

[edit on 27-4-2009 by Power_Semi]

I hope this works, I found a good picture

reply to post by Power_Semi


So, did the communication that he recieved lead him to believe that, or is that his personal opinion? I can't imagine the government sending out a mass notice telling them they don't know what to do...

Originally posted by 27jd
reply to post by Power_Semi

 

So, did the communication that he recieved lead him to believe that, or is that his personal opinion? I can't imagine the government sending out a mass notice telling them they don't know what to do...

What he said was that the communication told them that they are to tell the public that there are plenty of treatments available, but that basically they haven't really got a clue what to do with actual patients who have contracted it.

I guess they have to tell the doctors something, and it isn't really going to work BSing them is it?

It sounds to me like they are trying to avoid panic from the public, and I also now suspect that they won't admit it if the first few people who get it actually die for the same reasons.

It does sound odd to me that no one else apart from in Mexico has died, so it's either nothing really to worry about because it's mutated to something less severe, or it's an orchestrated & united front from the rest of the World to not admit people are dying to avoid economic problems & social unrest.

Since people in Mexico still appear to be dying, I suspect that things might be a tad worse than we're being led to believe.

But then again it might not be.

Originally posted by Power_Semi
I guess they have to tell the doctors something, and it isn't really going to work BSing them is it?

I can't see why it wouldn't work, this bug is new. There aren't any doctors out there who know jack about it except the ones studying it right now, tamiflu is effective against other forms of flu, there is no reason for them to believe at this point it wouldn't be for this strain. Plus, nobody here in the US has had the need for any medication to recover.

edit to add: it is odd that they are only dying in Mexico, but that's the epicenter supposedly, it could very likely weaken as it goes from person to person...

[edit on 27-4-2009 by 27jd]

reply to post by Nifron



we are in st.albert, my wife is a nurse at the royal alex hospital.

Got swabbed today, but the doctors here dont seemed to be worried. The only reasoon they are testing her for the virus is because she is a nurse and was recently in Mexico(Mar24-April 7).

Originally posted by 27jd

Originally posted by Power_Semi
I guess they have to tell the doctors something, and it isn't really going to work BSing them is it?

I can't see why it wouldn't work, this bug is new. There aren't any doctors out there who know jack about it except the ones studying it right now, tamiflu is effective against other forms of flu, there is no reason for them to believe at this point it wouldn't be for this strain. Plus, nobody here in the US has had the need for any medication to recover.

edit to add: it is odd that they are only dying in Mexico, but that's the epicenter supposedly, it could very likely weaken as it goes from person to person...

[edit on 27-4-2009 by 27jd]

Thats my point though - the natural assumption is that it's weakening, but what if it isn't?

Don't get me wrong, I have been thinking all along that this was being blown out of all proportion, however, if it WAS making people seriously ill outside of Mexico would they tell us?

The Mexicans are saying that the Mexican Govt aren't telling the truth about how bad it is (see the BBC website for reports from Mexican Doctors), so if it was spreading & was bad would they tell us immediately so that everyone panics, don't go to work, buy all of the food etc at the supermarket, and swamp the health service, or would they play it down hoping that it isn't going to spread far & that they can contain it, & only admit it's bad if it can't be contained.

At the end of the day I'm pretty sure that the economy would come first while they see what happens.

Also, the Mexican doctors on the BBC are saying that shots aren't working - the only evidence offered that tamiflu is working is coming from the US govt, which if they are hiding the true severity of the situation then....


Again, I'm not saying it is that bad, it may well be not be making people severely ill outside of Mexico, but I find that odd since infected people in Mexico are STILL dying, so it hasn't weakened there.

Just food for thought.

[edit on 27-4-2009 by Power_Semi]

reply to post by FredT


Declared? I thought the US was in a constant state of health emergency.

Look up the statistics for your age group and find out what tops the list of killers. Influenza probably isn't even near the top 5, if it's even listed on there.

I'm much more concerned with what's happening in the middle east, and in the white house, than I am with a flu. Not that it won't hurt to be careful, it does have a higher kill rate than previous flu "pandemics". I'd estimate it to be around 5-15%, depending on whether the media is being truthful or not.

[edit on 27-4-2009 by bdswetty]

I seriously dont get why the government is calling an emergency here. Less than 1% has died and none of those were here in the U.S. This is just plain silly.

Whats the agenda?

Originally posted by Power_Semi
Also, the Mexican doctors on the BBC are saying that shots aren't working - the only evidence offered that tamiflu is working is coming from the US govt, which if they are hiding the true severity of the situation then....

Ah, I haven't seen that yet, but it may very well be true. However, tamiflu does need to be taken at the onset of symptoms to be effective, and alot of the population in mexico do not have the resources to be on top of it like that. Also, not all the deaths in mexico are confirmed swine flu, only a small handfull have actually been tested and they found a few were other causes. 36,000 people die in the US alone yearly from the regular flu, context is sorely needed in the media on this.

Again, I'm not saying it is that bad, it may well be not be making people severely ill outside of Mexico, but I find that odd since infected people in Mexico are STILL dying, so it hasn't weakened there.

Yeah, some illnesses seem to really work the areas that they break out in. I'm not saying this doesn't have potential to get bad, but we've been through 2 almost identical events very recently, and they never really materialized (SARS and the bird flu), remember the areas they started in, people died in numbers, but not so much elsewhere....

[edit on 27-4-2009 by 27jd]

edit: double post

[edit on 27-4-2009 by 27jd]

On FOX News this afternoon, several experts stated that the stats being released do not make sense. They state for a death rate of 80+ people at a death percentage of one percent then there would have to be over 10,000 cases right now. Unless the death rate is much much higher than the Gov't, WHO, CDC officials are letting on or there are many more cases that are not being reported.

I smell a rat. Like Attorney General Eric Holder stated " we should never let a good crisis go to waste! " . I think something is up with the information being released to the media. Either they are afraid of causing a panic or they have something big planned and this is the excuse to get it done.

If anyone hears of any Gov't or World Order crap they are trying to pull. Do everything you can to get the word out.

well when people say there's no threat... then in my mind i've come up with this so far..

Gestation is between 3 days and 1week
It aims for the young adults.. 18-35
It's proven fatal in young adults
It's getting harder to detect
Alert level is 4 of 6
It's still mutating (1 week to 2 months)
This could be a test to see how the real virus would acclimatise.

also the Tamiflu/Relenza tablets ONLY help within 24-48 hours of contact..symptoms take about 3 days to 1 week to show.

when they say "patients are recovering well" where's the proof of that?

no interview with the patients,no names/pictures/videos of them laughing and joking..something's fishy.

EDIT FOR SPELLING

[edit on 14/01/09 by Raider of Truth]

reply to post by Raider of Truth


also the government are only saying "mild symptoms" and "recovering well " or "proprly cared for at home" i know people saying..others are being dragged into their homes by authorities and quarantined. A guy on facebook posted a note saying that he knows of a family of 12 being quarantined in Wolverhampton.

I must admit that I am beginning to feel more uneasy about this whole Swine flu thing. Especially after that other post on ATS about the woman calling up a radio show telling how the government were transporting viruses around the US. That post is what pushed me from "non-believer" to "it could be possible".

On a secondary note, I think it is important NOT to personify this Swine flu virus. A lot of people are doing this, either for self-reassurance or to show some optimism. Viruses do not have brains and think "hmm, who should I take over as host and multiply?" They cannot rationalise who is best to infect and whether they will die out by doing so. They simply find a host, multiply and repeat this behaviour.

What I find very concerning is that after so many years of research, study and experiments on viruses, humans cannot even cure the common cold...It just seems staggering that we are so ignorant on how to deal with viruses and, most importantly, finding ways to counter and weaken their behaviour.

[edit on 28/4/2009 by Dark Ghost]

here's something others may find interesting...

edition.cnn.com...

now read the bottom part of the article..that's an interesting "side effect"
and the fact someone stated there could be well over 10,000+ cases right now witha lot more deaths than is being told...

only what Day 4..it's getting interesting.

reply to post by Raider of Truth


also i found this quote from another article..

"But the WHO cautions, it cannot say whether or not it will indeed cause a pandemic. According to epidemiologists and health experts, here's what the world might see if there is another pandemic, based on past experience:

The disease would skip from city to city over an 18-to-24 month period, infecting more than a third of the population. World health Organization officials believe as many as 1.5 billion people around the globe would seek medical care and nearly 30 million would seek hospitalization. Based on the last pandemic and current world population, as many as 7 million people could die, epidemiologists said."

now thats very interesting!

other sources say 7 million is the BEST figure as in minimal loss..others are concerned it could be anaother Spanish flu with over 100 million dead.

Day 4 of Many many many more to come..