Passangers ride a subway train in Mexico City with surgical masks - April 25, 2009.
The swine flu is quickly spreading, with 100 or more are already dead, and thousands coming down with flu-like symptoms.
In NYC 200 children from a school complained they felt ill.
Two cases have been confirmed in Texas.
Humans have no immunity against this new influenza, which is a deadly mix of bird and swine flu.
It is highly contagious, with a high fatality rate.
It kills young people because their immune systems are strong and they overreact.
Patients choke in their own fluids, cough blood. If you survive the first 24 hours it is very likely pneumonia will finish you off in the next days.
Doctors say taking tamiflu in the first hours after infection can increase your risk of survival and reduce complications.
The Spanish Flu of 1918 was the deadliest pandemic ever, killing more people that the Black Death.
It too was a strain of pig flu and killed mostly young people by messing up their immune systems.
The spanish flu had a high fatality rate, with some small communities and villages completely wiped out to the last person.
The WHO says this will become a pandemic because:
- The virus is a new strain of influenza, from which human populations have not been vaccinated or naturally immunized.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_M...tbreak#cite_note-CDC_MMWRDispatch_20090421-36
- The virus has produced severe disease in Mexico, and some deaths. Furthermore, in Mexico (but not in the United States) the illness has primarily struck young, healthy adults, much like the deadly Spanish Flu of 1918. This is unlike most influenza strains which produce the worst symptoms in young children, elderly adults, and others with weaker immune systems.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_M...outbreak#cite_note-WashingtonPost_20090425-37http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_M...uenza_outbreak#cite_note-who_don_2009-04-24-2
- The virus appears to infect by human-to-human transmission. Investigations of infected patients indicate no direct contact with swine, such as at a farm or agricultural fair.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_M...uenza_outbreak#cite_note-who_don_2009-04-24-2 In contrast, for example, disease transmission in the last severe human outbreak of influenza, the bird flu that peaked in 2006, was determined to be almost entirely from direct contact between humans and birds.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Mexico_and_U.S._swine_influenza_outbreak#cite_note-38
- The virus has been detected in multiple regions within Mexico and multiple areas in the United States.