Swineflu: WHO Regional Office aware on April 10th & April 11th

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Kennelijk is dit al oud nieuws voor sommigen?

Groet / Cees

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html
April 6
Veratect reported local health officials declared a health alert due to a
respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz
State, Mexico.  Sources characterized the event as a "strange" outbreak of
acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some
pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever,
severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400
cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which
has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s
population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise
timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had
been seeking health assistance for the town since February.

Residents claimed that three pediatric cases, all under two years of age,
died from the outbreak. However, health officials stated that there was no
direct link between the pediatric deaths and the outbreak; they stated the
three fatal cases were "isolated" and "not related" to each other.

Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig
breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated
by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which
in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company
denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to "flu."
However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary
investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that
reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.
It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected
pathogen responsible for this outbreak.

And to be crystal clear, the way we used this information was to simply
flag an event as worthy of closer scrutiny and higher awareness, as there
was absolutely no proof of true involvement of this company in the
outbreak- a proper epidemiological investigation is required to prove such
links.

Local health officials had implemented several control measures in
response to the outbreak. A health cordon was established around La
Gloria. Officials launched a spraying and cleaning operation that targeted
the fly suspected to be the disease vector. State health officials also
implemented a vaccination campaign against influenza, although sources
noted physicians ruled out influenza as the cause of the outbreak.
Finally, officials announced an epidemiological investigation that focused
on any cases exhibiting symptoms since 10 March.

This information was available in our web portal to all clients, including
CDC and multiple US state and local public health authorities.

We do know, after checking our web site logs, that the Pan American Health
Organization, the WHO Regional Office of the Americas, accessed this
specific report in our system on April 10th and again on April 11th.

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