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April 29, 2009

Patient Zero

They're thinking it's a 5-year old tot in La Gloria, Veracruz, Mexico:

Edgar, who is 5, (not 4 as government officials previously reported) is the earliest known victim of the disease in Mexico. How he contracted it could be a key clue in figuring out the virus' path.

Maria del Carmen Hernandez, Edgar's mother, said her son began sniffling and feeling feverish in late March. She gave him flu medicine from the pharmacy, but the fever persisted. She put wet cloths on his forehead. She considered putting him in a tub of water.

Finally, after a week, the fever broke, and Edgar seemed fine, she said.

"We didn't isolate him," Hernandez said. "We all slept in the same bed, he'd greet his little brother with a kiss. We all lived together and no one else got sick."

Just so very strange. They think it spread so far so quick because the Easter holiday is very big in Mexico, being a staunchly Catholic country, there was a lot of interstate travel, and when combined with the lack of sanitary facilities for the poor in Mexican communities and the fact that they lived near pig farms that were known by nose for miles, well, it maybe was just a matter of time.

I would point out that this is what I understand from what I heard, and I am about as far away from being a doctor as can be.

Posted by The Chinuk at April 29, 2009 09:13 AM