Swine Flu Update | 04/28/2009 9:35 am

Swine Flu Traced to 4-Year-Old Boy; WHO Says Containment Impossible

The swine flu pandemic has been traced to a four-year-old boy who lives 12 miles from a U.S.-owned pig farm.

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

While Rush Limbaugh and other right-wingers want to blame Barack Obama for the swine-flu pandemic, medical authorities say they’ve traced the illness back to its true source: a four-year-old Mexican boy, Edgar Hernandez.

Investigators say that the young boy contracted the illness in February, but recovered. Two local babies sadly did not survive their bout. From Hernandez and his village of La Gloria, the disease then spread across Mexico and has since been reported in a number of countries, including the United States. That village, Newser reports, is mere miles from a pig farm owned by a U.S. company, Smithfield Foods. Though no pigs there have the flu, residents say it may have spread from their waste.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization today said there’s no way to contain the outbreak, according to the Guardian. Governments and citizens should plan accordingly.

14 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I find this fascinating. Within a few short days, they trace the flu back to one small boy in a remote area. They traced mad cow disease to a solitary cow. But with today’s intelligence, technology, and highly trained military experts, we really have no clue where Bin Laden is or if he is even alive.

By Maggie W on 04/28/2009 9:41 am

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Good point. If only Osama was sick…then we could set our doctors on his trail, and we’d have him in no time flat. LOL!

By Rachel F on 04/28/2009 9:57 am

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It’s easy to track an illness. These outbreaks have to be reported by the doctor….they have the time, date, etc. when the first case was reported. Easy.

Finding Osama bin Laden is very different as he lives in caves most of the time and has such a loyal following. I hope he is dead, however, there are plenty of his "soldiers" to carry out the deed against all of the "infidels."

By deber B on 04/28/2009 10:01 am

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What does one have to do with another? This could quickly become very serious. Please everyone, if you or child is sick, don’t send them to school and DON’T go to work. Some of us have compromised immune systems and this is scary.

By Sherry Dale on 04/28/2009 10:09 am

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Germs and viruses are so fascinating… I just watched an interview with Dr Germ that really open my eyes I suggest you ladies watch it too… http://obsessedtv.com/2009/04/samantha-ettus-interviews-microbe-hunter-dr-philip-tierno-aka-%e2%80%9cdr-germ%e2%80%9d/

By Mary D on 04/28/2009 10:21 am

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Here Here, Maggie! I also find that strange.

By Beth Cornell on 04/28/2009 10:37 am

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I find it very dubious that the source of the outbreak has been identified. The wowowow article mentions La Gloria [there are 3 or more La Gloria villages in Mexico] and other sources mention Oxaca, which is at least 200 miles away from the 3 more prominent La Gloria villages.

By Andrea Brandon on 04/28/2009 11:20 am

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What I questioned beyond this possiable cover…The components of this Virus. It seems very implausable that all these different varrients who origins are globally spread, to come together. It makes me think that this was Bio-Egineered. Baxter admited to sending out live Bird VIRUS, INSTEAD OF A VACINE. They said OPPS!. This juist has the nil chance of occuring naturally, so then this does have the appearence of a Cover.

By Jennifer Dooley on 04/28/2009 12:19 pm

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Baxter Labs sent out live bird virus? I’m not a biochemist but is it possible they sent it out to another pharmaceutical so that they could manufacture their own first generation vaccine? I’m sure biotech labs exchange these components all the time, don’t they? Again, pure WAG [wild-assed guess] on my part in response to Jennifer’s statement.

I haven’t done any research on this but I suppose it could occur naturally. Infected swine passes infection to human who passes it to another. [Can a swine catch it from a human?] But let’s assume that the very first human was in some far out-lying village. And let’s assume it was census time in Mexico and the census taker caught the infection and brought it back to his office in a major Mexican city. From there it could have been transmitted to another major Mexican city - perhaps a tourist city that was hosting kids on spring break…..who brought it back to their universities…..or went home and peddled the infection there. Alternately, all it takes is one river to transport pathogens.

I don’t believe it was intentional.

By Andrea Brandon on 04/28/2009 3:54 pm

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BAXTER PUTS LIVE AVIAN FLU IN VACCINES AND SENDS IT OUT TO 18 COUNTRIES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ublV45NOFPc

"Upon learning about the swine flu outbreak in Mexico yesterday, Baxter requested a virus sample … They got caught shipping out 18 shipments tainted with LIVE BIRD FLU … Not surprised that this is not more in the news.

Intentional, not sure. Bio Engineered, that I am sure!

Baxter is very much active in manufacturing Bio-Weapons for the Military. Why has this Opps not been more in the news. It occured latter Feb. 2009…You do the math! Also how much do yo0u think they will make manufacturing the New Vac for this?

By Jennifer Dooley on 04/29/2009 8:42 am

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Jennifer,Yes, Baxter has a vested interest in their products. Yes, they shipped live components contaminated with H5N1 to 18 countries. Yes, a lab in Prague used it on ferrets and made the grim discovery. [DAMN, I HATE using animals for testing.] Yes, the "foolproof" protocol for shipment of components from the US ensures that accidents don’t happen. Many companies do biological and germ R&D for the US Dept. of Defense. Some have special labs for specialized testing, others don’t. There are a myriad of governmental regulations requiring compliance, although I would expect that under certain conditions exemptions from protocol could be obtained from the USG. I certainly don’t have the real answers - where oh where is Sam? - but I can see several possibilities. Baxter could have been doing DoD R&D, they could have been stockpiling, they may have needed use of a lab outside the US with less rigid safety requirements and protocols [which leaves the barn door open for errors]. I’m sure there are many more possibilities.

Why wasn’t it in the news more - I can’t answer that. Google the topic and you get a large number of references [most say the same thing]. So was the December shipment intentional? Probably. Was Baxter’s intent to release the germs and render people medically helpless in order to guarantee profit by manufacturing a vaccine to wipe out the malady? I cannot for the life of me imagine them doing that.

By Andrea Brandon on 04/29/2009 12:26 pm

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Andrea, Thank for your post. I had heard the list of varrients and their origins and immediatly I doubted the Natural Occurence of this happening. I then went to Google and now found even more out about this and Baxter from googling What are the countries that the tainted Flu vac were sent to? The more I look into my gut reaction, the more I am Alarmed at Baxter’s involvment. I usually am a very up beat lady, this is my gut reaction. I have sent the question it brings to mind to cnn and other news stations, why is this niot being looked at!? I did notice that Cnn is just now starting to show that this new virus( like the name change?) Type A/H1N1) That this is also carring Bird Flu. Bird, Swine and Human and numerous varrients are what this "New" virus is comprised of. I do not believe that Baxter should be allowed to have anything to do with Vac anymore. They have more than once made huge errors if nothing else. I really hope that this was error because if not we are all in for a world of hurt.

By Jennifer Dooley on 04/29/2009 1:25 pm

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I know that there were 18 countries that Baxter sent shipments to. One was their own lab in Austria [because they can do things in Austria that they can’t do in the US perhaps?]. The Austrian Baxter lab, according to one account, inadvertently contaminated the product before sending it on to a Baxter lab just outside Prague. [Remember, the foreign labs may not be required to follow the US regs.] So those are 2 of the 18 labs. Don’t know where the others are, but that they do have them all over the world.

Before deciding that Baxter shouldn’t be allowed to work with vaccines I think it’s important to check the Austrian protocol and see if it was the same, if they were in compliance, etc. It could be that the regs allow for more wiggle room and this resulted in a human error. As far as why the news media isn’t giving it much attention, I can only guess that Baxter isn’t talking and that perhaps the USG asked them not to give it much press because people might panic. Again - just my thoughts.

A/H1N1 is the same thing as H1N1. The hierarchy is influenza type A, subset H1N1. The H1N1 is the swine influenza we’re now hearing about.

By Andrea Brandon on 04/29/2009 2:02 pm

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I have experience working with virus I understand subsets ect. I guess what knowledge I have is playing a part in my reaction. Baxter is never talking. I have a personal history with them as well. I will tell you this, no way will I or my Family have a Vac from Baxter.

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).[51]

By Jennifer Dooley on 04/29/2009 2:18 pm