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Gimme your predictions: Since we are so close to Mexico, and we have so many illegal immigrants running around, how long before we have a swine flu outbreak in NM?
I would not be surprised if there were/are already cases that have not been diagnosed as such. It's not often fatal, seems less fatal in the US than in Mexico, and is treatable. No need to panic.
Well thanks for the reassurance. I know that our government is always on top of things, and responds to every crisis like Katrina immediately and efficiently. I will not worry about swine flu now.
I'm not saying you should not be concerned about this, and I expect it will soon be spreading in the US. If it's diagnosed early, it can be treated with Tamiflu and I imagine that a vaccine using the specific flu strain is already being developed, although it will take weeks to manufacture. I think the gov't seems to be on top of this one. I'm not sure what you'd have them do? I'm also not sure about the connection to illegals, seems like a relatively open travel border for legals can cause the spread just as quickly and more effectively, with infected tourists boarding planes and bringing this to many more areas.
Last edited by karmathecat; 04-27-2009 at 10:55 AM..
Reason: added
The connection to illegals is that the virus seems to be coming out of Mexico, as are illegal immigrants. They tend not to be vaccinated, or have adequate health care. Yeah, the virus is not causing too much concern right now, but it could mutate and become stronger, no?
It seems as though the cases here in the US were not brought across by illegals but by people traveling into Mexico for visits and bringing it back home. However both customs(which is the people working at the bridge) and the border patrol are both on high alert. They have been since Friday, so I agree with Karmacat that in this instance the gov't is on top of this one. Just take the precautions that the CDC is recommending.
On another note, geez sometimes the sarcasm just abounds around here.
"They tend not to be vaccinated, or have adequate health care."
Plenty of Americans, legal and illegal status in the US, are without adequate health care. There is currently no vaccination against this strain of swine flu. When the vaccine becomes available, I would assume it would be distributed to outlets that could provide it to anyone..similar to the clinics at drugstores and community locations that provide free or cheap flu shots every fall.
The connection to illegals is that the virus seems to be coming out of Mexico, as are illegal immigrants. They tend not to be vaccinated, or have adequate health care. Yeah, the virus is not causing too much concern right now, but it could mutate and become stronger, no?
It wouldn't matter if they were vaccinated or not considering at the present time there is no vaccine for the swine flu. Of course it could mutate and become stronger and we would be defenseless because as a nation we are quick to take antibiotics for any little thing, we are afraid to let our kids get exposed to germs because they might get sick so therefore our immune systems are weak and when something like this comes up we are unable to fight this off.
The weird thing about this strain of the flu is that the majority of the people who have died have been between 25 and 50 and in other flu strains the deaths usually occur in the very young, elderly and those with compromised immune systems.
We will probably never know the circumstances of those who have died in Mexico such as their health, compromised immune systems or the mere fact that Mexico for the most part is just lacking in proper sanitation. Were the people poor, homeless, rich or did it start in a school setting and spread from there, these are questions that we will probably never know the answer to.
It seems as though the cases here in the US were not brought across by illegals but by people traveling into Mexico for visits and bringing it back home. However both customs(which is the people working at the bridge) and the border patrol are both on high alert. They have been since Friday, so I agree with Karmacat that in this instance the gov't is on top of this one. Just take the precautions that the CDC is recommending.
On another note, geez sometimes the sarcasm just abounds around here.
just because the few cases we have had were not brought in by illegals doesn't mean we will not see some in the very near future. That being said, I am not going to lay awake worrying about it. First of all, our sanitation overall is much better, our government has a heads up and we do not have an many crowded conditions.
I don't mean we shouldn't be very careful or take this lightly, but we shouldn't become parinoid either.
Nita
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