April 28, 2009--It has been three days since the World Health Organization declared a worldwide health alert due to the appearance of a new virus in Mexico. While some are calling it "swine flu," others point out that it has genetic information from avian and human flu virsues as well. What makes this outbreak important is that the disease is able to be transmitted from human to human and a vaccine has not yet been devoloped against it.
Schools have been shut down, first in Mexico City and the State of Mexico, now nationwide. Public meetings for entertainment have been canceled. Yesterday the mayor ordered all restaurants and bars to close their doors. Discussions have been held to decide on shutting down the capital city's vast transportation system which transports millions daily. In the absence of a vaccine it is hoped that keeping people at home will shut the virus down.
While this blogspot was designed to comment on natural history in Mexico from a Humboldtonian perspective, this public health emergency is something that would have attracted the Prussian scientist's attention. For what distinguished Humboldt was his awareness of the impact of the environment on people and the need to use science to improve people's lives.
In the next days, I invite my students to offer their opinions, to share information they find important to understanding what is happening. Why are there more mortalities in Mexico than in other countries where the disease has appeared? What is the link with pigs? Why did they become a jumping off point for this new viral strain? How do viruses operate? If they're not alive, how can they evolve?
There are many scientific questions to be asked. Newspapers, television and the interent are now offering a variety of reports that try to help us understand what is going on. If you find an important piece of information, share it here. If you have an opinion about the response to the crisis, post it here. The aim is to provide a forum in which we can learn together about what is happening and try to understand it better.
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6 comments:
Well, in my opinion, there are more casualties in Mexico not only because of malnutrition but also because the health centers and medical facilities are not as efficient, and advanced technology-wise as those of the United States.
I think that too many Mexicans self medicated with antibiotics or other medicine so the virus mutated and became stronger so that nothing could cure it at first. Also maybe many people waited too long to go to the doctor so there was not much the doctor could do.
I desagree with Pia because medical centers in Mexico have taken the right measures in this emergency case. Also te government has been taken measures as if the virus was in fase 6. Some of the main resons for the deaths of this people is because they self medicate, or they simply dont pay much attention to the syntoms they are having, and when they arrive at the hospital it is too late. I do think that Mexico has taken responsability and has been efficent in this circumstances.
Ane
I think that Mariana Mejia is in the correct Mexico respond very good to the measures in this emergency case. They cancel the classes because they didn´t want people to get the swine flu. They prevent people of getting infected because this disease is transmitted threw people. This disease is contagious you can trensmited this disease by the saliva.
Ane Ambrosi
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