Mexico and US Worry over New Flu Strain

A lot of health officials from Mexico and the United States are currently searching for some signs that a new flu outbreak is continually spreading. It was reported last Saturday that the new deadly flu virus had killed sixty eight individuals in Mexico and had also infected eight others in the US. Mexico is now shutting down schools as well as museums and have withdrawn from public events. At the moment, global health officials are practically on the verge of calling a pandemic in Mexico. They have also warned that there might be additional cases emerging – cases that could be put together in order to pronounce a major outbreak while the flu continues to spread and infect other people.

Lowdown on the Flu

The WHO or the World Health Organization mentioned that such a virus that came from these twelve Mexican patients are also quite genetically similar to a recently proclaimed swine flu. This new swine flu has been designated as H1N1 and is evident in eight other cases coming from the states of California and Texas. These eight cases, however, have shown recovery statuses. The government of Mexico also mentioned that the flu ended up killing twenty people. It is also responsible for forty eight other deaths. The total count of the cases is one thousand and four suspected cases to be reported nationwide. Jose Angel Cordova, the Health Minister, had announced on the television evening news that it is important for people to keep away from crowds and to start wearing face masks. However, there was nothing that can guarantee that a flu shot or vaccine will be able to protect them against this new strain.

Studying the Death Rate

Cordova also mentioned that upon studying the death rates, it appears to have steadied. In many hospitals during the past couple of days, there were not any reports of a rise in people being infected compared to what most had feared. A lot of genetic analysis also shows that there appears to be a new mixture of avian, human and swine viruses that have not been seen in the past and is present in this new flu strain. Statistics show that a lot of these deaths were in the age range of twenty five to forty five years old and was also linked to pandemics. The reason for this is because a seasonal flu has a tendency to become deadlier to those who are quite old and also very young. Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico said to health officials last Friday that they acknowledge the seriousness of such a problem. Cordova has mentioned that in Mexico, there are one million doses of the antiviral medicine which could be used to treat such cases at the moment.