Fatal swine flu breaks out in Mexico

Reuters AlertNet - Fatal swine flu breaks out in Mexico: "Fatal swine flu breaks out in Mexico
24 Apr 2009 14:36:36 GMT


By Noel Randewich and Armando Tovar

MEXICO CITY, April 24 (Reuters) - A deadly swine flu never seen before has broken out in Mexico, killing at least 16 people and raising fears of a possible pandemic.

The World Health Organization said it was concerned at what it called 800 'influenza-like' cases in Mexico, and also about a confirmed outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in the United States.

Mexico canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding area on Friday after authorities noticed a higher number of flu-like deaths than normal in recent weeks.

'It is a virus that mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans,' Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told the Televisa network.

He put the death toll at 16 confirmed cases and dozens of other suspected deaths. WHO said about 60 people have died in the country.

The Geneva-based U.N. agency said it was in daily contact with U.S., Canadian and Mexican authorities and had activated its Strategic Health Operations Center (SHOC) -- its command and control center for acute public health events."


This is scary! The public does not understand that viruses are merely pieces of errant DNA or RNA that have escaped the confines of their host species. In the host, the virus is like any other DNA .. it a gene and makes stuff ans works with the rest of the DNA. When a virus gets loose and infects a different species, the rest of that new host is not adapted to the virus and very bad things can happen.

AIDS stasrteed much like this.