Mexico: Eight states delay the return to classes until May 18

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/...dades-que-retrasan-al-dia-18-regreso-a-clases

In Zacatecas and Chiapas, the entities that are eight to 18 postpone the return to classes

Zacatecas, Jalisco, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi, Nayarit, Michoacan and Guerrero, delayed the start of school due to increased potential for A/H1N1.

La Jornada On Line
Posted: 09/05/2009 14:33

Mexico, DF. At least eight states of the country delayed the return to classes until May 18 as a preventive measure to prevent an increase in people infected with the A/H1N1 virus.

This Saturday, the government of Zacatecas week decided to postpone a return to classes at all levels of education as a preventive measure against the epidemic of human influenza.

According to Lucero Medina, secretary of Education and Culture of the state, expected to restart classes next Monday, but the measure was adopted after it was sent yesterday to 500 suspected samples analyzed for the virus, this would be the third week without classes .

Hours later the state of Chiapas, Juan Jos? Sabines Guerrero announced that return to the basic level classes will be 18 and not May 11 measures taken to avoid an increase in cases of influenza, adding that the start date to operate the new team of state health lab, diagnose more quickly and efficiently the disease.

At a press conference, broadcast by local radio and television, said that more than five thousand treatments, sufficient to care for patients having influenza, as well as adequate space in hospitals, for a strict follow-up.

He said that preventive measures are sent in all the languages of Chiapas, with focus on 28 municipalities with the lowest human development index, and is still making the "sweeping" in the Highlands region to detect cases.

Yesterday, Jalisco, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosi, joined the action that had already taken the states of Guerrero and Michoacan, to suspend school activities until next week.

Jalisco's government took this decision after he recorded three deaths in the last 24 hours with symptoms of influenza.

In Hidalgo, yesterday afternoon Friday, the governor, Miguel Angel Osorio Chon, announced that he could not allow the return to classes because in the last week there was a significant increase in the number of possible cases of human infection by influenza going from 27 cases to 122.

In San Luis Potosi, the president Marcelo de los Santos Fraga announced the decision has not broken the chain of infection and that this will happen until you spend at least two periods of incubation of the virus, ie, 10 days should be counted from May 4, when the last case in order to lower the alert.

In Nayarit, the state governor, Ney Gonz?lez S?nchez, announced the suspension of activities from kindergarten to secondary schools in the municipalities of Bahia de Banderas, Ixtlan del Rio, Amatl?n de Ca?as, El Nayar, The tinder, and Ahuacatl?n Jala, due to proximity to Mexico and the cases filed in that state.

In Michoac?n, it was also decided to delay the return to classes since Friday afternoon was the first fatality in the state by the human influenza virus.

On Friday night, the Ministry of Health of Guerrero reported that to date have been 20 confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 and 118 of type A in the state, thus continuing on alert because of a total of 294 samples processed , of which 118 were positive for influenza type A and 176 were discarded.

 

[Extrapolation]

Re: Mexico: Eight states delay the return to classes until May 18

This says implicitly what the Mexican government (Central) is not saying explicitly.

 

[tropical]

Re: Mexico: Eight states delay the return to classes until May 18

Go on with the 2 week closures folks ...

...
Yesterday, Jalisco, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosi, joined the action that had already taken the states of Guerrero and Michoacan, to suspend school activities until next week.

Jalisco's government took this decision after he recorded three deaths in the last 24 hours with symptoms of influenza.

In Hidalgo, yesterday afternoon Friday, the governor, Miguel Angel Osorio Chon, announced that he could not allow the return to classes because in the last week there was a significant increase in the number of possible cases of human infection by influenza going from 27 cases to 122.

In San Luis Potosi, the president Marcelo de los Santos Fraga announced the decision has not broken the chain of infection and that this will happen until you spend at least two periods of incubation of the virus, ie, 10 days should be counted from May 4, when the last case in order to lower the alert.
...

 

[Extrapolation]

Re: Mexico: Eight states delay the return to classes until May 18

delated see below thread #5

 

[Extrapolation]

Re: Mexico: Eight states delay the return to classes until May 18

WEEKLY RECAP IN MEXICO POLITICS AND POLICY IN RE H1N1

Reuters: Posted Sunday 050409:

Mexico will Resume Normal Business Activity

MEXICO CITY, May 4 (Reuters) - Mexico will resume normal business activity this week after its swine flu emergency eased, but the global flu alert triggered a trade dispute on Monday over bans on Mexican, U.S. and Canadian pork.

International tensions triggered by the new H1N1 virus, which contains mostly swine components with bits of human and avian influenzas, emerged after about 20 nations banned imports of pork, pigs and other meat from the United States, Canada and Mexico, the three most flu-affected countries. [nN04402062]

Mexico, the epicenter of the new flu outbreak which has surfaced in 21 countries, declared it was winning the battle against the flu, which has killed 26 people in the Latin American oil producer nation.
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This 180 degree change in policy/stratagey should not be a surprize if one understands Mexican Central Governmental logic - I am just happy that the states over-ruled the Central Governments wreckless edicts to relax what should be a fortification of social distancing - at a minimum.

Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told reporters on Monday the government would lift the five-day shutdown it imposed on public and business activities on May 1 after the epidemic swept across the country.

"(We will) resume, as planned, activities in the public and private sector on May 6 with recommendations on matters of health and hygiene at the workplace," Cordova said.
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EXTRAPOLATION also posted 050409:

EDITORIAL:

Be Forewarned: . . . "that truth crushed to earth shall rise again"

Influenza virus' (of all sorts - but especially novel, new on the block emergent ones) do not speak Spanish or English - nor do they respond or recognize government edicts and administrative protocols.

If you have never been to Mexico, it has absolutely no infrastructure once you are outside of 8 or nine cities - and has only a veneer of modernity in its government and public service operations - beyond a few tourism hotels (generally owned by non-Mexican western 1st world chains) and related services -

Their health care and services - to be kind - are like ours (the US) were in the 1930's - and there is no real centralized data collection as we think of it - as most of the hospitals are private and do not even report - and they especially don't report to a central agency even garden-variety tracking of disease course - and so much less so - emergent epidemiological novel issues such as H1N1 - as in reality - beyond the veneer - there IS NO central agency to report to.

Most people who are familiar with both epidemiology and Mexico - presume it a given that there have been 20,000 H1N1 cases over the last 100 to 120 days - nationwide of varying virulence - since its emergence - since January - and NOT begining on March 18th as when Mexico claims it "discovered" the virus' presence in their country -

Consider these invisible "facts" - (only invisible to us outside of Mexico and reliant on Mexican government reporting - which as a practical matter is an oxymoron) when you attempt to make sense out of the behavior of a Government overseeing a dysfunctional 1930's health care system - - ahhhhh - that is Mexico.

-Snip
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Extrapolation posted 050509:

In support of my post above - from Associated Press (AP)

Malum consilium quod mutari non potest
(translation: it's a bad plan that can't be changed.)

Mexico Declares Epidemic To Be Waning

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Mexico announced a return to "normalcy" on Monday, preparing to reopen businesses and schools even as the virus sickened more than 1,400 people in 20 countries. World health officials said the global epidemic is still in its early stages, and that a pandemic could be declared in the days to come.

But Mexico's president said it was waning at its epicenter, justifying Wednesday's end to a five-day nationwide shutdown he credits for reducing the spread of the new virus.

SNIP

"The school schedule will resume with the guarantee that our educational institutions are in adequate hygienic condition," promised Calderon, who called on parents to join educators in a "collective" cleansing and inspection of schools nationwide.

"This is about going back to normalcy but with everyone taking better care," Calderon said.

Parents and teachers will turn away children who appear sick. The government is spending $15 million for detergent, bleach and soap to clean buildings, in a country where 12 percent of the nearly 250,000 schools ? about 30,000 ? lack running water or bathrooms.

SNIP

And experts inside Mexico's swine flu crisis center warned that the virus remains active throughout Mexico and could bounce back once millions return to work and school. It also may get worse north of the border.

"The bottom line is that there hasn't been time for the severe illnesses to perhaps show up in the U.S. yet," Marc-Alain Widdowson, a medical epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press.

SNIP

But other experts said the known cases are almost certainly only a fraction of what's out there, meaning more illnesses could surface once crowds gather again in Mexico.

"It's clear that it's just about everywhere in Mexico. I think now there is considerable person-to-person transmission," Widdowson said. And now that the virus is taking off in the U.S., chances of severe cases could rise as well.

"We've seen in many of the cases in Mexico, there's been sometimes five to seven days of being mildly ill with increasing respiratory distress and then being hospitalized, and then spending five days or a week in hospital, so that's a timeline of two weeks," he said.

SNIP

The WHO was studying whether to raise the pandemic alert to 6, its highest level, which would mean a global outbreak has begun. WHO uses the term pandemic to refer to geographic spread rather than severity. Pandemics aren't necessarily deadly. The past two pandemics ? in 1957 and 1968 ? were relatively mild.

The Southern Hemisphere is particularly at risk. [Ed: BRAZIL]

SNIP

- End

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...MM_EQD97VPHNG0

North America and South America can celebrate that several states over-ruled this wreckless policy - and are now going back to a sane public-health and social policy of continued social distancing.

 

[Extrapolation]

Re: Mexico: Eight states delay the return to classes until May 18

Ed: Please see and note that this article is dated Saturday May 3rd -

Mexico says H1N1 flu epidemic in 'declining phase'

Updated Sun. May. 3 2009 1:20 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The H1N1 flu outbreak in Mexico has peaked and is in decline, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said Sunday, while China ramped up its surveillance of travellers from the country.

According to Cordova, the peak of the epidemic occurred between April 23 and 28.
While countries around the world continue to report new cases, Mexico is experiencing a decline in serious flu cases, with fewer patients being admitted to hospital, Cordova said.

"The evolution of the epidemic is in its declining phase," Cordova told a news conference on Sunday.

"There is evidence that we are going downward," he added.

Cordova confirmed that the death toll from the H1N1 virus in Mexico is still at 19 and the number of confirmed cases increased slightly from 473 to 506, a figure which includes the dead.

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Extrapolation post from May 3rd, 2009 in RE the above article -

This is not possible (the authority's are in MEXICO CITY) - and more important - anyone who has been to Mexico knows that there exists (outside of a few major metropolitan areas and tourist destinations) - absolutely no infrastructure and accountability FOR THE REST OF THE NATION - and even in major cities and major tourist destinations - there exists very little accountability and data keeping -

Do not rely on this as accurate information - it is more than likely - the opposite of what is actually happening on the ground.

Reliance on this type of PR is to one's own detriment.

Aparently the 8 states mentioned also came to the same conclusion that to rely on Mexico's Centro Government's edict to "resume business as usual" - was actually: going to be to their detriment!