Houston TX – A government official confirmed the first U.S. death from the new H1N1 swine flu on Wednesday, a 23-month-old child who died in Texas.
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It is the first death from swine flu reported outside Mexico, the country hardest hit by the influenza outbreak. The disease is suspected of killing more than 150 people in Mexico and sickening over 2,400 there.
The official said no other details on the case. U.S. officials have confirmed 65 cases of swine flu, most of them mild.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization was holding an emergency “scientific review” of the outbreak to determine exactly what is known about how the disease spreads, how it affects human health and how it can be treated.
Experts will take part via telephone from the United States, Mexico and other countries where people have been infected by swine flu. The U.N. health body said a report will be published shortly after the meeting.
**Update** 9:15 AM Reuters
Houston health official says the child who died of swine flu in Texas was a Mexican who traveled to the US for medical treatment.
I said he was mexican yesterday before anyone admitted it! who is surprised or shocked???
I call this the Mexican flu because it is a mixture of the avian, swine & human flu virus. Several old acquaintances involved with micro biology have told me the flu could be a mutated version of the bird flu. Whatever the source one can expect the Mexican government to point the finger at the gringos to the north. Some of the micro biologists have expressed concern that this new virus could continue to mutate and further acclimate itself to the human immune system. From their view it appears to have the ability (though none has been proven) to bore inside & infect a cell & remain dormant until capable of overcoming the immune system, then bursting out. To date it looks like a garden variety flu as far as symptoms & mortality rates are concerned, but has the potential of being far more if it continues to mutate.
However, I am told it can infect pigs, birds or humans and therefore “the Mexican Flu” is the proper name for it.
Ed