How many people have died from the swine flu? According to the World Health Organization, that number is 7. This means that reports of other deaths have not been independently confirmed and may, in fact, have been caused by something else. You can read more on that here.
Still, today, every newspaper in America is covering the huge news that there has finally been a death here. What many of them fail to note is that this little girl was brought from Mexico to the USA to seek treatment. I have a bit of a unique perspective on this. I live in a border city and my husband is an emergency medicine resident at the hospital where Mexicans are brought for treatment when they show up at the border requesting medical care. He has shared with me many stories of having to cure the underlying illness and also whatever the health care techs in Mexico did that made it worse. He has also shared many stories of people who were so bad by the time they were transported to the USA that there was nothing the doctors could do to help them. He thinks some docs send their patients here so they won't die under their care. We have no way of knowing how sick this baby girl was before she was taken to Houston. We have no idea of knowing what her previous health record was like. Certainly, if she had underlying health problems before she got sick, any virus could have caused serious complications leading to death. But the fact is that the are not releasing any information besides her age. Please note: I have the utmost sympathy for any parent who loses a child. I sincerely hope they have the opportunity to celebrate her life, rather than only remembering how she died.
I firmly believe that we should all try to be prepared for whatever we can be, but I want everyone to take a step back right now and consider the facts. It is definitely not time to panic. Do not let yourself become a victim of fear. Two days ago I shared the CDC's estimate that 36,000 Americans die every year from the flu. Yet, this one Mexican who died in America is making everyone crazy. My advice is just to stay educated. The random slaughtering of pigs, bans on American pork, considerations of travel bans, and run-of-the-mill panic are definitely over-kill.
UPDATE: The department of health has announced that the little girl who died in Houston had "underlying health issues." Wow. who'da thought?
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