Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Swine flu--Mexico and the U.S.

In Mexico, they are dying. In the U.S. they are getting sick, being treated, and going home.
    Besser CDC update today, Apr. 28:"The CDC today raised the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. to 64, with 45 of them in New York. No deaths have been confirmed in the U.S. That will change, Besser said."
In Mexico, no one really knows how many are sick, or how many have died. I doubt that the government has reported it accurately. The government is in charge of their health care and their media may have about the same independence (none) as ours. So that may be the head scratcher answer for our journalists who can't seem to figure out why Mexicans are dying and Americans aren't.

The Mexican government for years has been dependent on money sent home by its illegal immigrants in the U.S., instead of developing its own infrastructure. Mexico is a country rich in natural resources, but entire cities and families have been descimated by emigration (who are probably now returning home). So far, their health care system hasn't even been able to get help to family members of those who have died, and this is spread person to person. I saw this from a blogger in Mexico (Medical News Today)
    I live in Cancun, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, about 1hour and 30 minutes by plane from Mexico City. Mexico City is the Swine Flu ground zero. A few days ago most of the Cancun population watched news coming from Mexico City with detachment. "This is over 1000 kilometers away," I heard one person say "we are fine." Gradually, local attitudes have changed.

    Yesterday we all watched the national news and heard that restaurants, nightclubs, schools, theatres, sports stadia, and anywhere that might hold large groups of people had not only been closed in Mexico City, but along the vacation resorts of the Pacific coast - Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatanejo. Can you imagine the economic consequences of closing restaurants, bars and nightclubs in tourist resorts?

    Friends in Mexico City phone me and describe empty streets. The few who do venture out wear masks and go about their business as swiftly as they can.

    The whole of Mexico is scared. "Will I get this? If I do what will happen to me? Am I hearing the truth? They say it is not so bad and easily treatable, but they would say that, wouldn't they?"
I heard a young mother say today that she was told not to bring her daughter to preschool because she had a temp (teething), but she had the little girl at the senior center where I was volunteering. Doesn't seem to be much alarm here--although I think that was poor planning on her part, considering many elders are immune compromised. Probably because Americans know they don't have government health care. YET. However, a pandemic will be a good excuse for the government to take over, just like Obama took over the auto industry, to share it with the unions, who supported him and the banks. If we already had Obama-care, I think there would be a different story--a much larger, faster spread and many already dead. The government handled the last swine flu outbreak (1976) badly, with more people dying from the vaccine than from the flu.

Another thing journalists are asking is why young, healthy adults are dying. My parents' generation didn't die in the last flu pandemic in 1918. They were young children. It was young healthy adults that died--like our soldiers called to fight in Europe, but dying before they got there. That's how it spread--lots of young, healthy people crowded together. We lost more soliders to the flu than we did to the war, a war in which it wasn't unusual to lose more men in one campaign than the 6years we've been in Iraq. Most of that generation is gone now. The immunity is over. It died with my parents' generation.

We know now how to treat the effects of the flu, but it will be interesting to see if Obama uses this as a crisis to take over health care with out a vote or objection.

If we already had Obama-care, we'd be holed up in our homes like the Mexicans, whimpering, wondering why the people ever voted for the man who nationalized our industries, destroyed our military, created a constitutional crisis by attacking the former president, and groveled and pandered before foreign leaders. Oh well.

Update: In Wednesday's WSJ article about the swine flu, you had to get all the way to the end to find, "the sorry state of Mexico's public and private health system. . . patients often wait hours to days to see the doctor." Just the kind of Obama-care we need north of the border.

Update 2: On the way to the grocery store Wednesday I heard a young child had died in the U.S. of swine flu. On the way home, I learned the child was a Mexican brought to the U.S. for better treatment. It's a tragedy for the family, but a plus for Obama's team which is looking for opportunities to nationalize health care, so maybe it's not as good as an American death, but it's close.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama goes to Mexico 2 days after taking office and then runs around the world glad handing and butt kissing. How long before the U.Sl gets blamed for spreading the flu?

Anonymous said...

Actually we gave the disease to the Mexicans

Eight of the viruses genes are foreign. Two are from European swine flu viruses, six from from swine flu viruses that are from viruses that circulate in Americans but which Americans have built up an immunity to, but which Mexicans have not.

Swine flu virus are made up of a total of EIGHT GENES.

Tourists from Europe and America brought these viruses with them and the combined in Mexico to create a new virus that the people there have no resistance to, but Americans have the greatest resistance to. The virus has already been analyzed by the CDC and the genetic sequencing determined this:


The new strain is an apparent reassortment of several strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1, which analysis at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified as a strain endemic in humans, a strain endemic in birds, and two strains endemic in American and Eurasian pigs (swine).



Its not our health care system that is making the difference, its the fact that we have a greater immunity to it than Mexicans.

Mexico has a better health care system than the United States the U.S. has a larger percentage of its population that has no health coverage at all.

Next, Mexicans also have a higher rate of innoculation against disease than Americans do, has a lower infant mortality rate etc.

Its fairly clear, as usual, that you have not done any homework on this one.

Its largely been Americans with a higher than average income who have come down with the disease.
Relatively wealthy students who could afford to fly from New York (where the largest number of Americans with the disease live) and not poor American

See it start spreading into Americans who do not have health insurance and you are going to see a far worse epidemic than the one in Mexico.

As far as the health care system in Mexico is concerned, there is a good reason so many Americans go to medical school in Mexico.

In fact it has been the MEXICAN health care system that has been winning various international bioethics awards, not the United States and its also why Americans who live near the southern border choose Mexican health care over American health care:

American Patients See Mexico As a Better Health Care Alternative


Plastic surgery in Mexico is getting a bit more organized. Due to the demand for lower plastic surgery cost and consumers still demanding savings for medical care, affordable plastic surgery in Mexico is again on the hype.

Two weeks ago, Grupo Angeles, the parent company of Mexico's largest private hospital group, Hospital Angeles, signed a contract with Health Travel Guides (HTG) to provide the technology infrastructure for managing its medical tourism operations. Another leading medical tourism agency, GoSculptura, now provides excellent but affordable plastic surgery packages in Mexico. GoSculptura now includes Mexico in its network of medical vacation destination and now has more than 500 satisfied patients and a 97% satisfaction rate. Other agencies such as Healthbase also chose the country to be part of its health care network and provide U.S. patients satisfactory plastic surgery in Mexico.

The overwhelming plastic surgery cost and the long wait to get medical treatment are two of the top reasons why American patients travel to other countries to receive medical and dental work. Whether a good new hip and a nice new face, you might have to dig deep into your wallet or wait several months before receiving the medical or dental care that you require. In 2006, more than 50,000 Americans go abroad to acquire affordable plastic surgery and dental work. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, year by year millions of patients from all places go to Mexico, Argentina, India, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Costa Rica. The reason - to evade the trauma of plastic surgery cost, to acquire affordable plastic surgery with less time to wait and experience inclusive vacation package and recuperation activities. These countries are top notch medical destination places where health care, medical facilities and surgeons are comparable and may exceed the quality of health care of the U.S.

As of now plastic surgery in Mexico is at the height of fame, thanks to medical tourism agencies. Mexico offers the same medical care quality as the U.S. but goes out with rock-bottom plastic surgery cost. Although the medical care in Mexico may not be as inexpensive as the ones in some Asian nations, the proximity to the U.S. is a big advantage to patients. Some U.S. companies are now sending employees to Mexico for their annual checkups. Some expert also find Mexico as a definite answer to treat the aging and under-insured Americans at a time when the retirement of baby boomers will further tax the U.S. health care system. An estimated 43 million Americans, about 15 percent of the population, are uninsured, according to a Census Bureau study.

The growth of medical tourism in Mexico and how the country will mature in terms of health care will determine the future of most American patients. According to Peter Maddox, Christus Health senior vice president for business, strategy and corporate development, "Our country will go broke unless we find a health care alternative". He sees Mexico as a wonderful alternative with incredible potential.

http://ezinearticles.com/?American-Patients-See-Mexico-As-a-Better-Health-Care-Alternative&id=1605352

On the whole as usual your thoughts are anything but collected

Norma said...

"a new virus that the people there have no resistance to, but Americans have the greatest resistance to"

And their rich seem to be immune because they can buy private health care in US or Canada; their poor get government health care, as do ours.

Stats by anon mean next to nothing here.

Anonymous said...

Murray sez:
Let's see, we have 300 million people in the U.S. and 60 reported cases of Swine Flu. This is an epidemic?? Hmmm! Could this be the opening Obama needs to help launch his disastrous national health plan? It was used by the Democrats as a reason to push Kathy Tax Evader Sebelius's confirmation as secretary of health and human services yesterday.