Outbreak in process...may have far-reaching effects

[TheSwally]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97P0VS00&show_article=1


60 Mexico flu deaths raise global epidemic fears

MEXICO (http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=Mexico&sid=breitbart.com) CITY (AP) - Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic. Mexico City (http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=Mexico+City&sid=breitbart.com) closed schools across the metropolis Friday in hopes of containing the outbreak that has sickened more than 900.

Scientists were trying to determine if the deaths involved the same new strain of swine flu that sickened seven people in Texas (http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=Texas&sid=breitbart.com) and California (http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=California&sid=breitbart.com)—a disturbing virus that combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before.



...

[TheSwally]

As a follow-up, I don't post this to raise the alarm flag necessarily. It is very possible, or even probable, that this will fizzle and die before it becomes a pandemic (like SARS did globally). But at the very least, it serves as a strong reminder that we should always be prepared for such an event, as they come without notice.

I feel confident that if we are working, according the words of our leaders, towards either building or all ready owning a 90 day supply of every-day food, such an event, if propagated quickly across the US, would be much less stressful to us knowing we have the food to survive in our home and would not have to venture out unnecessarily to grocery stores.

But in the worst-case scenario, and this does take on pandemic proportions, those of us who have hearkened to the words of our leaders will emerge with stronger testimonies of their inspiration in leading us.

Now here's to hoping they can contain this mess.

Swally

[Cowboy]

No need to panic. Just be aware of what is happening.

[arbilad]

I guess I should stop playing "This little piggy went to market" with my three year old.

Just kidding.

I think this will fizzle out, but if it doesn't, Cowboy is right; don't panic.

[LEVE]

I've often wondered if the Terrorists are test releasing bio-weapons in the general population of Mexico knowing that some of those will carry the sickness to the US over our porous border.

[ghostcat]

No need to panic. Just be aware of what is happening.Wise council!!

[threepercent]

on the other hand, this could be the beginning of the great cleansing, seeing how it is starting in "my house" of Jacob.

it could also be why Jacob comes through like a young lion.

PANIC!

FEAR! FIRE! FOES! FOOD STORAGE!

[mirkwood]

Hypothetical thought:

Something like this could happen and if it did, it would strike rapidly, leaving those who ignored counsel in a world of hurt and unable to obey.

[BackBlast]

Panic: Check
Last minute credit card maxing shopping trip: Check
Door barricaded: Check
Gas masks: Check
House environmental filter on: Check
Generator running: Check
Security cameras deployed: Check
Popcorn: Check (who can watch TEOTWAWKI without popcorn?)













Kidding, of course. Well, except for the popcorn.

[supersc]

I look at this as a wake-up call. Watch and pray.

Only 2 days of notice and the CDC says there really isn't anything they can do to stop it, of course.

Hopefully, this turns out to be a milder sickness set in the US than Mexico has seen since March 18th (the onset according to the WHO site)

[signseeker]

I wonder if a pandemic could pan out via The Lily Pad Effect.

[sparrow]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzz357patY4-QaJFvo9O95zMM_EQD97PL02O0

[ktcottle]

already - confirmed cases in the USA (8 cases) and CDC says it is too late to control the outbreak.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517815,00.html (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517815,00.html)<O:p
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517790,00.html (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517790,00.html)<O:p
<O:p
also CDC.gov has just listed as of yesterday a lot of information about the swine flu ? how someone catches it and other information.

[mirkwood]

Something to watch very closely...just in case.

[mirkwood]

WHO declares international concern over swine flu

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/p/ap_logo_106.png (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/brand/SIG=br2v03/*http://www.ap.org)

GENEVA – The World Health Organization warned countries around the world Saturday to be on alert for any unusual flu outbreaks after a unique new swine flu virus was implicated in possibly dozens of human deaths in North America.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the outbreak in Mexico and the United States constituted a "public health emergency of international concern."
The decision means countries around the world will be asked to step up reporting and surveillance of the disease, which she said had "pandemic potential" because it is an animal virus strain infecting people. But the agency cannot at this stage say "whether or not it will indeed cause a pandemic," she added.
Chan made the decision to declare public health emergency of international concern after consulting with influenza experts from around the world. The emergency committee was called together Saturday for the first time since it was created in 2007.
In theory, WHO could now recommend travel advisories, trade restrictions or border closures, none of which would be binding. So far it has refrained from doing so.
The agency also held off raising its pandemic alert level, citing the need for more information.
Earlier, Chan told reporters that "it would be prudent for health officials within countries to be alert to outbreaks of influenza-like illness or pneumonia, especially if these occur in months outside the usual peak influenza season."
"Another important signal is excess cases of severe or fatal flu-like illness in groups other than young children and the elderly, who are usually at highest risk during normal seasonal flu," she said.
Several Latin American and Asian countries have already started surveillance or screening at airports and other points of entry.
At least 62 people have died from severe pneumonia caused by a flu-like illness in Mexico, WHO says. Some of those who died are confirmed to have a unique flu type that is a combination of bird, pig and human viruses. The virus is genetically identical to one found in California.
U.S. authorities said eight people were infected with swine flu in California and Texas, and all recovered.
So far, no other countries have reported suspicious cases, according to WHO.
But the French government said suspected cases are likely to occur in the coming days because of global air travel. A French government crisis group began operating Saturday. The government has already closed the French school in Mexico City and provided French citizens there with detailed instructions on precautions.
Chilean authorities ordered a sanitary alert that included airport screening of passengers arriving from Mexico. No cases of the disease have been reported so far in the country, Deputy Health Minister Jeanette Vega said, but those showing symptoms will be sent to a hospital for tests.
In Peru, authorities will monitor travelers arriving from Mexico and the U.S. and people with flu-like symptoms will be evaluated by health teams, Peru's Health Ministry said.
Brazil will "intensify its health surveillance in all points of entry into the country," the Health Ministry's National Health Surveillance Agency said in a statement. Measures will also be put in place to inspect cargo and luggage, and to clean and disinfect aircraft and ships at ports of entry.
Some Asian nations enforced checks Saturday on passengers from Mexico.

Japan's biggest international airport stepped up health surveillance, while the Philippines said it may quarantine passengers with fevers who have been to Mexico. Health authorities in Thailand and Hong Kong said they were closely monitoring the situation.
Asia has fresh memories of an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which hit countries across the region and severely crippled global air travel.
Indonesia, China, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries have also seen a number of human deaths from H5N1 bird flu, the virus that researchers have until now fingered as the most likely cause of a future pandemic.
The Dutch government's Institute for Public Health and Environment has advised any traveler who returned from Mexico since April 17 and develops a fever over 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit (38.5 Celsius) within four days of arriving in the Netherlands to stay at home.
The Polish Foreign Ministry has issued a statement that recommends that Poles postpone any travel plans to regions where the outbreak has occurred until it is totally contained. The Stockholm-based European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said earlier Saturday it shared the concerns about the swine flu cases and stood ready to lend support in any way possible.

[mirkwood]

Questions and answers about swine flu

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/p/ap_logo_106.png (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/brand/SIG=br2v03/*http://www.ap.org)

Mexico is contending with an outbreak of swine flu, suspected in the deaths of dozens of people and sickening perhaps 1,000. In the United States, at least eight cases have been confirmed with the infection, all of them in California and Texas; only one person was hospitalized. Here are some questions and answers about the illness:

Q. What is swine flu?
A. Swine flu is a respiratory illness in pigs caused by a virus. The swine flu virus routinely causes outbreaks in pigs but doesn't usually kill many of them.

Q. Can people get swine flu?
A. Swine flu viruses don't usually infect humans. There have been occasional cases, usually among people who've had direct contact with infected pigs, such as farm workers. "We've seen swine influenza in humans over the past several years, and in most cases, it's come from direct pig contact. This seems to be different," said Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert with the University of Michigan.

Q. Can it spread among humans?
A. There have been cases of the virus spreading from human to human, probably in the same way as seasonal flu, through coughing and sneezing by infected people.

Q. What are the symptoms of swine flu?
A. The symptoms are similar to those of regular flu — fever, cough, fatigue, lack of appetite.

Q. Is the same swine flu virus making people sick in Mexico and the U.S.?
A. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the Mexican virus samples match the U.S. virus. The virus is a mix of human virus, bird virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

Q. Are there drugs to treat swine flu in humans?
A. There are four different drugs approved in the U.S. to treat the flu, but the new virus has shown resistance to the two oldest. The CDC recommends the use of the flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.

Q. Does a regular flu shot protect against swine flu?
A. The seasonal flu vaccine used in the U.S. this year won't likely provide protection against the latest swine flu virus. There is a swine flu vaccine for pigs but not for humans.

Q. Should residents of California or Texas do anything special?
A. The CDC recommends routine precautions to prevent the spread of infectious diseases: wash your hands often, cover your nose and mouth when you cough or sneeze, avoid close contact with sick people. If you are sick, stay at home and limit contact with others.

Q. What about traveling to Mexico?
A. The CDC has not warned Americans against traveling to Mexico but advises that they be aware of the illnesses there and take precautions to protect against infections, like washing their hands.

[mirkwood]

WHO warns of flu pandemic as Mexico City frets

http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/reuters/brand/SIG=pd7i95/*http://www.reuters.com)
MEXICO CITY/GENEVA (Reuters) – A new flu strain that has killed up to 68 people in Mexico could become a pandemic, the World Health Organization warned on Saturday, as Mexico's crowded capital hunkered down in fear of the disease.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon appealed for calm as hospitals tested patients with flu symptoms for the never-before-seen virus, which has also infected eight people in the United States.
"I think it's worse than they're telling us," said 35-year-old Lidia Diaz, sniffling and wearing a surgical mask as she headed to a clinic in Mexico City.
There have been no further deaths in Mexico City since Friday, but 24 new suspected cases were being tested and the strain has spread quickly between people, meaning there was a risk of a major outbreak. Tests show the new strain of H1N1 swine flu genetically matches eight mild cases first identified in California and Texas.
"It has pandemic potential because it is infecting people," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said in Geneva.
"However, we cannot say on the basis of currently available laboratory, epidemiological and clinical evidence whether or not it will indeed cause a pandemic.
A pandemic would deal a major blow to a world economy already knocked into its worst recession in decades by the crisis in financial markets. The last flu pandemic was in 1968 when "Hong Kong" flu killed about a million people globally.
The new flu strain -- a mixture of swine, human and avian flu viruses -- is still poorly understood and the situation is evolving quickly, Chan said.
As far away as Hong Kong and Japan, health officials stepped up surveillance of travelers for flu-like symptoms, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was actively looking for new infections in the United States.
"We are worried and because we are worried we are acting aggressively on a number of fronts," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters. "The situation is serious."
Mexico has said the new flu had killed 20 people and could be to blame for 48 more deaths. In all, more than 1,000 suspected cases have been reported nationwide. Most of the dead were aged 25 to 45, a worrying sign because a hallmark of past pandemics has been high fatalities among healthy young adults.
Mexico has shut schools and museums and canceled hundreds of public events in its sprawling, overcrowded capital of 20 million people to try to prevent further infections.
Mexico City canceled a foot race along its most famous avenue and a blues music festival on the city's edge. Two soccer matches on Sunday were to be played in empty stadiums.
Shopping centers were hushed, restaurant reservations were canceled and everyone from waiters to churchgoers wore face masks. Hundreds called a flu hotline.
"Our goal is to break the spread of the virus in the city," Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said after suspending 553 public events planned for coming days.
The Reforma newspaper calculated 433 confirmed cases in 17 states, including Baja California and Chihuahua on the border with the United States.
Baja California's state epidemiology official Jose Aranda said it had confirmed 25 cases after testing 200 of 378 people with flu symptoms. "They are all being treated," he said.

A significant worsening of the outbreak could hit tourism and consumer spending in a country already weakened by the global economic crisis and an army-led war on drug cartels. About 6,300 people died in drug-related violence in 2008 and more than 2,000 so far this year.
MORE CASES COULD EMERGE
No countries or global bodies have issued travel bans to Mexico, but some countries alerted travelers to check websites for information on the flu outbreak.
The WHO says the virus from 12 of the Mexican patients is genetically the same as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight people in California and Texas. All of the eight later recovered.
An emergency committee of WHO experts will advise Chan on whether to raise the WHO's pandemic alert level, currently at 3 on a scale of 1 to 6.
Mexican soldiers handed out surgical masks and Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told people to avoid crowds and close physical contact. He said there was no guarantee current vaccines would help against the new strain.
The seasonal flu vaccine protects against one strain of the H1N1 virus, which is also circulating, but this new version is genetically different. Experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working on a vaccine against the new strain but it could take months to make.
In New York City, health officials were looking into what had sickened scores of students who developed flu-like symptoms in a Queens high school on Thursday and Friday, although the symptoms were reported as mild.
CNN reported they had tested positive for influenza A, the same general group of viruses as the swine flu, but health officials said they could not confirm that.
In Hong Kong, the epicenter of the 2003 SARS epidemic and a city especially vigilant about any threat of infectious disease, the government ramped up safety checks at airports and the border and labs analyzed flu samples in the territory. Cordova said Mexico had 1 million doses of antiviral medicine, easily enough to treat the cases reported so far. Roche AG's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza have been shown to work against viral samples taken from the eight people infected in the United States.

[mirkwood]

Mexico fights swine flu with 'pandemic potential'

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/p/ap_logo_106.png (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/brand/SIG=br2v03/*http://www.ap.org)

MEXICO CITY – As Mexico struggled against the odds Saturday to contain a strange new flu that has killed as many as 68 and perhaps sickened more than 1,000, it was becoming clearer that the government hasn't moved quickly enough to head off what the World Health Organization said has the potential to become a global epidemic.
The World Health Organization said the outbreak has become a "public health emergency of international concern" and asked countries around the world to step up reporting and surveillance of the disease and implement a coordinated response to contain it.
But Mexicans were dying for weeks at least before U.S. scientists identified the strain — a combination of swine, bird and human influenza that people may have no natural immunity to. Now, even controlling passengers at airports and bus stations may not keep it from spreading, epidemiologists say.
The disease has already reached Texas, California and Kansas, and 24 new suspected cases were reported Saturday in Mexico City alone, where authorities suspended schools and all public events until further notice. More than 500 concerts, sporting events and other gatherings were canceled in the metropolis of 20 million.
The Mexican government issued a decree authorizing President Felipe Calderon to invoke special powers letting the Health Department isolate patients and inspect homes, incoming travelers and baggage.
Officials said the decree gives clear legal authority to Health Department workers who might otherwise face reprisals.
Health workers and soldiers joined a broad effort at airports and bus stations to keep people with disease from traveling though or out of the city. But with confirmed swine flu cases in at least 6 states — and possibly as many as 14 — the efforts seemed unlikely to stop the spread of the disease.
At Mexico City's international airport, health workers passed out written questionnaires seeking to identify passengers with flu symptoms. Surgical masks and brochures were handed out at bus and subway stations. The U.S. embassy in Mexico posted a message advising U.S. citizens to avoid large crowds, shaking hands, greeting people with a kiss or using the subway.
Particularly difficult in a metropolis as crowded as Mexico City was the embassy's advice to maintain "a distance of at least six feet from other persons may decrease the risk of exposure."
Early detection and treatment are key to stopping any outbreak. WHO guidance calls for isolating the sick and blanketing everyone around them with antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu.
Now, with patients showing up all across Mexico and its teeming capital, simple math suggests that kind of response is impossible.
Mexico appears to have lost valuable days or weeks in detecting the new virus.
Health authorities started noticing a threefold spike in flu cases in late March and early April, but they thought it was a late rebound in the December-February flu season.
Testing at domestic labs did not alert doctors here to the new strain, although U.S. authorities detected an outbreak in California and Texas last week.
Perhaps spurred by the U.S. discoveries, Mexico sent 14 mucous samples to the CDC April 18 and dispatched health teams to hospitals looking for patients with severe flu or pnuemonia-like symptoms.
Those teams noticed something strange: The flu was killing people aged 20 to 40. Flu victims are usually either infants or the elderly.
As recently as Wednesday, authorities were referring to it as a late-season flu.

But mid-afternoon Thursday, Mexico City Health Secretary Dr. Armando Ahued said, officials got a call "from the United States and Canada, the most important laboratories in the field, telling us this was a new virus."
"That was what led us to realize it wasn't a seasonal virus ... and take more serious preventative measures," Health Secretary Jose Cordova said.
Some Mexicans suspected the government had been less than forthcoming. "They always make a big deal about good things that happen, but they really try to hide anything bad," Mexico City paralegal Gilberto Martinez said.
Soldiers and health workers handed out masks at subway stops, and hospitals dealt with crowds of people seeking help. A hot line fielded 2,366 calls in its first hours from frightened city residents who suspected they might have the disease.
Doctors reported that anti-viral medications and even steroids were working well against the disease, noting no new deaths had been reported in the capital in the last day.
Airports around the world were screening travelers from Mexico for flu symptoms. But containing the disease may not be an option, because more than 1,000 people have been infected in as many as 14 of Mexico's 32 states, according to daily newspaper El Universal.
"Anything that would be about containing it right now would purely be a political move," said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota pandemic expert.
Ahued, the capital's health secretary, said Mexico City may not even be the epicenter of the outbreak.
"The country's best health care facilities are concentrated in the city," he said. "All the cases here get reported, that's why the number is so high."
World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan said the outbreak of the never-before-seen virus has "pandemic potential." But she said it is still too early to tell if it would become a pandemic.
"The situation is evolving quickly," Chan said in Geneva. "A new disease is by definition poorly understood."
This virus is a mix of human, pig and bird strains that can be transmitted from human-to-human.
Scientists have warned for years about the potential for a pandemic from viruses that mix genetic material from humans and animals. The WHO held off on raising its pandemic alert level, citing the need for more information.
Another reason to worry is that authorities said the dead so far don't include vulnerable infants and elderly. The Spanish flu pandemic, which killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19, also first struck otherwise healthy young adults.
This swine flu and regular flu can have similar symptoms — mostly fever, cough and sore throat, though some of the U.S. victims who recovered also experienced vomiting and diarrhea. But unlike with regular flu, humans don't have natural immunity to a virus that includes animal genes — and new vaccines can take months to bring into use.
The same virus also sickened at least 10 people in the United States, though there have been no deaths north of the border.
A "seed stock" genetically matched to the new swine flu virus has been created by the CDC, said Dr. Richard Besser, the agency's acting director. If the government decides vaccine production is necessary, manufacturers would need that stock to get started.
None of that provided any easy answers to Mexico City residents, who reacted with fatalism and confusion, anger and mounting fear at the idea that their city may be ground zero for a global epidemic.
Outside Hospital Obregon in the capital's middle-class Roma district, a tired Dr. Roberto Ortiz, 59, leaned against an ambulance and sipped coffee Saturday on a break from an unusually busy shift.
"The people are scared," Ortiz said. "A person gets some flu symptoms or a child gets a fever and they think it is this swine flu and rush to the hospital." He said none of the cases so far at the hospital had turned out to be swine flu.

[mirkwood]

Swine flu cases turn up in NYC, Kansas

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/p/ap_logo_106.png (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/brand/SIG=br2v03/*http://www.ap.org)

NEW YORK – At least eight students at a New York City high school probably have human swine influenza, but health officials said Saturday they don't know for sure whether they have the same virus that has killed scores of people in Mexico. At least two cases of the flu have been confirmed in Kansas.
A strain of the flu has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico. The World Health Organization chief said Saturday the strain has "pandemic potential" and it may be too late to contain a sudden outbreak.
New York health officials said more than 100 students at the private St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, had come down with a fever, sore throat and other aches and pains in the past few days. Some of their relatives have also been ill.
New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said nose and throat swabs had confirmed that eight students had influenza type A, indicating probable cases of swine flu, but the exact subtypes were still unknown.
Samples had been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for more testing. Results were expected on Sunday.
In Topeka, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment confirmed two cases of swine flu. A department spokeswoman said additional details would be released at a news conference later Saturday.
At least eight swine flu cases also have been reported in California and Texas.
The symptoms in the New York cases have all been mild and no students have been hospitalized, Frieden said, but the illnesses have caused concern because of the deadly outbreak in Mexico.
Frieden said that if the CDC confirms that the students have swine flu, he will likely recommend that St. Francis Preparatory remain closed on Monday out of an abundance of caution.
The city health department has also asked doctors to be extra vigilant in the coming days and test any patients who have flu-like symptoms and have traveled recently to California, Texas or Mexico.
He said New Yorkers having trouble breathing due to an undiagnosed respiratory illness should seek treatment, but shouldn't become overly alarmed. Medical facilities in the part of Queens near St. Francis Prep, he said, had already been flooded with people overreacting to the outbreak.
Overall, flu cases have been declining in the city in recent weeks and months as the flu season abated, Frieden said.

[sarge712]

I have a co-worker who is of Mexican descent who went to Mexico 2 weeks ago to finalize an adoption and he is now stuck in a quarantine zone. Our chief of police found out about it and told the rest of us to keep Luis in our prayers becasue according to Luis the swine flu outbreak is causing quite the panic down there in Southern Mexico where he is. He is staying at the orphanage where the adoption is taking place and is without firearms or anything to protect his family. He and his wife are both American citizens but they can't travel or return home until further notice. Just when we think we have it bad, there's always someone worse off.

[arbilad]

If a big pandemic hits, I'm sure that there'll be a lot of people "out of place". Either family that you wish were with you, or people on business/personal trips.

[TheSwally]

I promise I'm not freaking out, but I haven't added any masks to our preparation kits. Can anyone recommend a good type, perhaps a link to a site that sells them?

Thanks,
Swally

[sparrow]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8018428.stm
BBC commentary from people in Mexico.

[Aldon]

I bought mine at Home Depot and Lowes way back. I added them to 24 hour kits and each member of the family has a stash that they can get to them quickly.

Not sure a mask is realisticallly going to defeat the ability of the virus to infect a person, but it will likely impead it a bit:)

wash hands very often. Probably the best deterent.

[signseeker]

I don't have too much confidence in masks when it comes to flu virus, either.

So - what are some "home remedies" to ease flu suffering? Say, the pharmacies and hospitals are down.

[Earthling]

Can anyone recommend a good type, perhaps a link to a site that sells them?

After a lot of research I found the best deals were on Amazon - I could get twice the amount for the same price as other places and the ability to buy larger boxes. Don't forget to get N95 type.

[Earthling]

I recommend having a good supply of liquid hand sanitizer. I keep it in my purse and all the cars. If I end up eating something while out & about - then I put that on my hands first.

[signseeker]

I picked up many hand sanitizers at the dollar store. Also soaps and toothpaste and packs of 6 toothbrushes all for $1.

[phylm]

I've often wondered if the Terrorists are test releasing bio-weapons in the general population of Mexico knowing that some of those will carry the sickness to the US over our porous border.

My thought exactly. Our gov't. says "no evidence of bio terror," but I'll believe that when the source of the outbreak is identified.

[phylm]

I bought mine at Home Depot and Lowes way back. I added them to 24 hour kits and each member of the family has a stash that they can get to them quickly.

Not sure a mask is realisticallly going to defeat the ability of the virus to infect a person, but it will likely impead it a bit:)

wash hands very often. Probably the best deterent.

I read that the flu virus is too small to be kept out by masks, but that they might be valuable in preventing spittle from infecting you.

We're planning to do whatever backup buying we need (primarily prescriptions) in the next two days. Then we'll stay out of the public as much as we can. We do plan to go to the temple on Thursday to be with friends who are being sealed.

[threepercent]

probaby the best, best, best, thing about a mask is that it keeps you from touching your nose. so a bandanna will do that job.. if you dont have something on your face, you WILL touch your nose and mouth. its just something we do.

so wear em for that reason if it comes to that. :party:

[arbilad]

I'm convinced that this is a genetically engineered strain. How else do human, avian, and pig versions mix? If it's hard enough for a virus to break the species barrier once, imagine how hard it is to do it twice.

[signseeker]

The first big one was the Spanish Flu. How come we can't call this the Mexican Flu?

Good reminder about the perscriptions, phlym. I want an extra set of epi-pens for the 4yo and I'm gonna' get vitamins tomorrow, too.

[sarge712]

I don't think its a terrorist plot...not yet anyway. I think terrorists would hit us with something much stronger like super smallpocks, ebola, etc from the stocks that the Russians weaponized and that are missing. I don't worry about nukes as once one is set off its pretty localized not counting being downwind and all. Bio-weapons spread exponentially beyond the target site as the illness is doing in Mexico and cause panic far out of proportion to the original sickness.

[LEVE]

I think terrorists would hit us with something much stronger like super smallpocks, ebola, etc from the stocks that the Russians weaponized and that are missing.However, this may be a probe of our defenses. They'll be able to see how well we react to such a problem.

At this point, from what I see in response, collectivly we're doomed! I'm sure Al Qaeda is pushing thier chemists with new resolve to get a few projects out of the labs and into use.

Maybe OHB can just talk to them more and make nice.... I'm sure they'll listen.

[signseeker]

The Russians have Ebola? :blink: Didn't know that.

Smallpox would get people under what, 50 or something? I think is was pronounced "eradicated" in '80 or '83 wasn't it? I never got the shot.

[Earthling]

You mean there is something positive about being older? I got the shot!! :thumbsup: :l0 (46):

[sarge712]

I'm no NBC specialist but I read that the Russkies had obtained samples of bubonic plague, ebola and marsbergs and had worked on them to weaponize the stuff