Gripe A (Continuación)

American Epidemics, a Brief History

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

All epidemics are different in their own way, and the current swine flu outbreak — which by Friday had sickened 141 people in 19 states, and caused deaths and illness in Mexico and 13 other countries — is no exception. Yet, as you can see from the chart below, which provides details on a selected handful of epidemics in American history, all outbreaks share certain themes. While some of these events killed many thousands and others affected only a few, in each case public health officials felt a grave threat was imminent and did what they could using the science of the day.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, , ,  

Hubo un tiempo en que trabajé en una granja de cría de pollos. A decir verdad, hablar de granja es emplear un término excesivamente suave para referirse a la forma en que se criaban aquellos pollos y decir fábrica parece excesivamente cínico. Aquello era el séptimo círculo del infierno de los pollos, una cadena de producción que no dejaba de cloquear, que exhalaba un hedor vomitivo y que estaba anegada en la inmundicia, con un único objetivo: producir la máxima cantidad posible de carne comestible, con tanta rapidez y a un precio tan bajo como fuera posible, sin tener en cuenta ni la calidad, ni la crueldad, ni la higiene.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalEconomía, ,

A día de hoy, las consecuencias económicas de la nueva gripe son incalculables. Para comenzar a estimarlas habrá que distinguir entre las directas y las indirectas. Habrá, además, que tener en cuenta que se produce en medio de una recesión global. Analizaremos en primer lugar las consecuencias en México, donde, sin duda, serán relativamente mayores que en otros países. Pero a los costes de la crisis en este país habrá que añadir los que se produzcan en otros --en Estados Unidos, por ejemplo, y en España, desde luego-- para tener una idea, que necesariamente será inicial y aproximada del coste económico de esta gripe para el mundo globalizado.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, , ,

Every year approximately 10,000 Mexicans die from the effects of seasonal flu. Usually they are the elderly and the very young, people whose immune systems are not robust enough to fight off the virus. But this year has been different. The Mexican disease surveillance system, a network of more than 11,000 hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices, picked up a minor but troubling trend in April. Across this nation of 110 million people, a handful of young adults had apparently died from influenza. An immediate investigation led, within a few hectic weeks, to the isolation and full genetic sequencing of the microbe causing the illness.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, , ,

On Monday — before the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert to its second-highest level — it was easy enough to laugh about the swine flu, however inappropriately. Mexico City has lived through floods, earthquakes, diseases, violence, pollution and crime. Its residents, known as chilangos, are very good at toughing things out, and masters at improvisation.

On the streets of the city’s historic center, nearly everyone wore a surgical mask. Some moved them to the sides of their faces while they puffed on cigarettes. Many talked through them on cell phones. Others wore them jauntily around their necks as if they were scarves.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are responsible for containing swine flu -- a critical job that could affect tens of thousands of people in the United States and perhaps millions worldwide. But the public health agencies that are suddenly so much in the public eye lack key powers and resources. In fact, successive U.S. administrations have marginalized both, essentially rendering them less effective in times such as these.

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) a few years ago helped to prepare the world for today's pandemic threat because it galvanized the revision of the badly antiquated International Health Regulations in 2005.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

The swine flu outbreak seems to have emerged without warning. Within a few days of being noticed, the flu had already spread to the point where containment was not possible. Yet the virus behind it had to have existed for some time before it was discovered. Couldn’t we have detected it and acted sooner, before it spread so widely? The answer is likely yes — if we had been paying closer attention to the human-animal interactions that enable new viruses to emerge.

While much remains unknown about how pandemics are born, we are familiar with the kinds of microbes — like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), influenza and H.I.V.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, , ,  

I once worked on a chicken farm. Actually “farm” is far too gentle a word for the way these chickens were raised, and “factory” sounds too clinical. This was the seventh circle of chicken hell, a clucking, stinking, filthy production line with just one aim: to produce the maximum quantity of edible meat, as fast and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, cruelty or hygiene.

The creatures were raised in vast hangars, living on a diet of hormones, antibiotics and cheap grain, thousands crushed together in their own dirt under artificial light, growing from chick to slaughter size in a few grim weeks.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

El brote de gripe porcina A/H1N1 ha extendido el temor a una pandemia; es decir, a una enfermedad que se propaga por todo el mundo. Desde el siglo XVI se han descrito más de 31 pandemias (epidemias de amplísima extensión), algunas de las cuales han causado numerosísimos muertos. Como es sabido, la gripe es una enfermedad infecto-contagiosa aguda que afecta fundamentalmente al tracto respiratorio, con un cuadro que incluye tos seca, dolor de garganta, taponamiento y secreción nasal abundante e irritación ocular. En los casos más complejos se añaden escalofríos, fiebre de rápida instauración, cefalea, dolores musculares y articulares y, en ocasiones, problemas digestivos.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

We have gone demented. Two Britons are or were (not very) ill from flu. "This could really explode," intones a reporter for BBC News. "London warned: it's here," cries the Evening Standard. Fear is said to be spreading "like a Mexican wave". It "could affect" three-quarters of a million Britons. It "could cost" three trillion dollars. The "danger", according to the radio, is that workers who are not ill will be "worried" (perhaps by the reporter) and fail to turn up at power stations and hospitals.

Appropriately panicked, on Monday ministers plunged into their Cobra bunker beneath Whitehall to prepare for the worst.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

Mexico City is one of the greatest urban agglomerations in the world, a dense and teeming mountain valley with a population of more than 20 million. Wealthy enclaves have the sleekness of Manhattan or Beverly Hills, but much of the metropolitan area is gritty and anonymous. It must be an easy place in which to disappear.

Yet somehow, amid all the chaos and bustle, Mexican health authorities noticed an unusual cluster of deaths -- first just a handful, then a few dozen. That observation led to the identification of a new, potentially dangerous strain of influenza, and now governments worldwide are issuing travel advisories, readying stockpiles of medicine, canvassing hospitals for possible cases of "swine flu" and, of course, telling citizens not to panic.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

As the swine flu threatens to become the next pandemic, the biggest questions are whether its transmission from human to human will be sustained and, if so, how virulent it might become. But even if this virus were to peter out soon, there is a strong possibility it would only go underground, quietly continuing to infect some people while becoming better adapted to humans, and then explode around the world.

What happens next is chiefly up to the virus. But it is up to us to create a vaccine as quickly as possible.

Influenza viruses are unpredictable because they are able to mutate so rapidly.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

Durante las últimas décadas se han producido brotes de enfermedades infecciosas previamente desconocidas que, en función de su virulencia y modo de transmisión, han disparado las alarmas de los sistemas de salud públicos. En el año 1981, se identificaron los primeros casos de sida, en 1987 el virus ébola fue el causante de repetidos brotes de fiebres hemorrágicas de alta mortalidad, en 1995 fueron los priones del mal de las vacas locas, el 2003 apareció el síndrome agudo respiratorio severo (SARS) y el 2004 la gripe de las aves en humanos. El escenario confirma que, a pesar de todos los avances biomédicos, las enfermedades infecciosas siguen dando sorpresas y siendo una amenaza para la raza humana.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

For the first time since 1976, a strain of influenza virus - apparently related to the 1918-19 pandemic - has infected the public. More than 1,000 cases have been reported in Mexico, with over 80 deaths. And the disease has now spread to several areas within the United States and to New Zealand. The virus has been identified by the American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as type H1N1, containing a mixture of swine, avian and human genetic material.

This outbreak of influenza is viewed with alarm by public health workers. First, because the earlier pandemic was so deadly; second, because this is the first clear demonstration of human-to-human spread of the infection; and third, because it apparently started its spread after the normal "flu season" in the northern hemisphere.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

The first question on people's lips when the spectre of pandemic flu looms large is often: “Is there a vaccine and where can I get it?” That question is no doubt being asked again now with the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico.

Flu is an awesome foe because it is so slippery, constantly changing its colours. Every year the World Health Organisation decides which strains are likely to be most prevalent in the following year and bases the annual flu vaccinations on this combination.

Many assume that H5N1 will be the pandemic flu sub-type and that it will emerge from the Far East.…  Seguir leyendo »