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Prof.Gringo · Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 5:56 pm Post subject: Mexico Swine Flu Outbreak

It looks like Mexico is in for a rough ride with this current swine flu outbreak. As of today (4/28/09) over 150 people are dead in Mexico and over 2,000 have gotten sick. The WHO has raised it's pandemic alert level from 3-4 and the US is advising against all unnecessary travel to Mexico (the EU is advising against travel to Mexico and the US Razz

).

Schools are closed till May 6th, supplies of face-masks and Tamiflu are running low in pharmacies (many are already sold out).

What's your take on all this? What are you doing to prepare? What things are you doing different (if any)?

Me: I have food and water for 2 weeks, and a supply of Tamiflu for my wife and I. I am also not going out in public unless I have to and when I do I wear a face mask and wash my hands often.

aroha · Joined: 08 Oct 2004 Posts: 66 Location: Mexico

Not having to go to school is giving me a chance to catch up on some studies that I had put off, but I am finding it a bit hard to concentrate with the situation changing so rapidly here in Mexico City.

Having heard about the new flu on Thursday night, on Friday morning I went to the supermarket to stock up with about 2 weeks of food and water. Like Prof Gringo I only go outside if necessary, and to get a bit of sunshine, and I wear two of those face masks. We don't have any Tamiflu or other medicines, so we are taking as many precautions as possible, washing our hands frequently. My partner works in a private hospital which doesn't have any patients with cases of the flu. All the doctors have been asked to wear masks in order to avoid potentially passing the flu onto patients.

Other than taking the recommended precautions, i dont know what else we could be doing at this stage.

So how about everyone else?

AdrianG4 · Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 160 Location: Harbin, China

It's SARS/Mad Cow Diseaese/Bird Flu/Africanized Bees/Y2K in Pig flu form.

And this time it's personal (or it's just gonna fade out of the media in a few weeks -- I'm going with the latter.)

Regardless, I've already built an underground tunnel under my home.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:32 pm Post subject:

It does feel like a sequel to stuff we've seen before. But did any of those pandemics pan out?

I've always figured there was something odd about it all, but never really investigated it- a friend showed me this, though:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

Food for thought, while you're confined to your homes...

Best,
Justin

Mexicobound · Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:57 am Post subject:

This could be informative for those monitoring the situation.
A link to Google Map's Swine Flu tracker:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=p&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.0004681a37b713f6b5950&ll=32.639375,-110.390625&spn=15.738151,25.488281&z=5

notamiss · Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:16 am Post subject:

If it turns out that the flu epidemic fizzles out, it doesn't necessarily mean that the measures taken (closing schools, canceling events, restricting travel etc.) were an overreaction. It might, instead, mean that they worked.

Phil_K · Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own

Meanwhile, I can enjoy having the city to myself Very Happy

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 1:05 am Post subject:

Thanks to everybody that voted and for your input Idea