Word: viruses
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...then last week the Mexican government realized it had the more rarefied swine flu (or A/H1N1 virus) epidemic on its hands. Hernandez's husband - who like so many Mexicans suspected of contracting swine flu is of a relatively young age not usually waylaid so severely by flu viruses - was transferred to the INER. "I believe the doctors and nurses are doing the best they can," says Hernandez, 42. "This is just a very painful ordeal for all of us, and it's hard for everyone to cope." (See the Top 5 Swine...
...Miguel Angel Lezana, director of the National Epidemiological Center, tried a bit of buck-passing this week, suggesting the response by the U.N.'s World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, "should have been more immediate" after Mexico informed WHO officials on April 16 of a possibly uncommon flu virus, one whose symptoms also include splitting headaches as well as the pneumonia-related problems. What Lezana seems to have conveniently left out is that Mexico as of then still did not have a proper laboratory to test for that viral strain; and that the WHO may not have been able...
...dispute over whether or not the cause was swine flu, as some medical officials now claim, or a more common flu, as Cortes and the rest of Leyva's family just as adamantly insist. What's clear is that if Mexican officials were concerned about a new flu virus as early as April 16, word either wasn't getting to towns like Xonocatlan - and patients like Leyva - or doctors in those towns weren't reporting symptoms like Leyva's to health officials as assiduously as they should have. Either way, a cloud of confusion still hangs over Leyva's neighborhood...
...prepare for an imminent pandemic. "The biggest question is, 'How severe will a pandemic be?'" Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, said in Switzerland. So politicians have to make like they're doing something. Gabon and Ghana have banned the import of pork, even though the flu virus cannot be contracted through eating dead pig. Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe say they are checking arriving passengers at borders and airports and have response plans of varying sophistication should an outbreak occur. In some places, they've gone much further: Authorities in Egypt, which was affected by bird...
...weren't prepared for this. Harvard University Health Services sent out a helpful email informing the Harvard community about how to avoid contracting the virus. Insightful advice about washing hands (with soap, people!), avoiding contact with the sick, and how to cough properly (“into the crook of your elbow”) from HUHS has been much appreciated by FlyBy, who had previously thought that sneezing into people’s faces and swapping saliva with those who had hacking coughs was healthy and downright sexy. So, in order to better inform...