Tuesday, May 05, 2009

While "The West" laughs in the face of H1N1, the WHO raises the Pandemic Alert to 5.



The NEW flu may seem like a walk in the park to First World nations, but, it is still very serious business for most nations globally. There are many questions regarding the virus including why does Mexico have such a high, atypical (effecting 20, 30 and 40 year olds over the usual pattern of the elderly and young) and wide spread infection rate and what is being done to alleviate the poverty of these nations that allow such conditions to propagate not just poor quality of life, but, dangerous infectious disease?

There have been cases reported in countries in Latin America that border on Mexico through casual tourist contact. These episodes are turning into huge concerns for these governments for many reasons.

To begin, the countries are rather impoverished and while The West seems to think too much is being made of these circumstances by the WHO and otherwise, there are serious consequences to countries with less than helpful health care and a populous poorly educated to hygiene with no waste disposal methods.

9 SUSPECTED CASES OF SWINE FLU INFECTIONS REPORTED IN BELIZE (click here)
April 30, 2009
On Tuesday the World Health Organization raised the alert on Swine Flu to stage 5, a tier below declaring the outbreak a pandemic. Following the postponement of several social activities across the country that were planned for the Labor Day weekend health officials today held another in a series of press conferences to update the media and the public on the latest status of the Swine Influenza threat to Belize. During the briefing there was clarification about information that has been given by the media.
Doctor Paul Edwards; Director, Central Health Region
“We need to be careful how we say this; they are cases, they are under investigation. We need to be extremely careful when we say that. We would like the media to understand that we have the heightened surveillance and when we find that something is fitting the bill we will take off a sample and send it to CARIC. The important development from yesterday is the fact that we have found four cases of interest. One in San Pedro, one in Orange Walk and two in Belize City.”
Dr. Edwards also spoke on events that are considered mass gatherings....


The Latin American and South American countries have a difficult job in monitoring and controlling the spread of such a virus. If one recalls there was a familiar virus called HIV that originated in monkeys. Viruses are very dangerous, there was a time when such disease killed people in the USA and otherwise unchecked by modern technology and vaccines. The WHO understands the dynamics of what can be a very dangerous scenario that can still find its way into not only a pandemic, but, also an epidemic with deaths recorded rather than just infections.

If, in the tropics, monkeys contract the virus it could annihilate species of monkeys, but, it can also impact on humans in a new strain of virus more virulent than the previous.

There is a link to a WIKI illustration that explains 'antigenic shift' (click here) and why any virus without vaccines available are dangerous. Polio didn't come under control because organization like the WHO considered it an insignificant infection.

The WHO does incredible work. If they say there is still concern then there is still concern.

Those of conscience tried to 'coup' Hitler in the Nazi's final hours as well.

NATO needs to rethink their commitment to the current government in Georgia.

These actions by any of the military in Georgia is not a matter of revolt, it is a matter of fighting back against the government's human rights violations and the backing of a NATO that demonizes Russia when in fact there were reasons for actions by the Russian peacekeepers. Allowing this level of oppressive government to continue in Georgia through self-righteous propaganda, is as significant as those that committed the human rights violations in the first place. Putin really needs to move before the United Nations to stop this insanity.

If there are reasons to oppose Georgian leadership and NATO then the Russian government needs to believe in what they know and act in ways that insure the safety of the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Approaching the United Nations isn't a matter of accepting the fact the USA will exercise its veto in the face of any Russian action, it is a matter of putting on the record the reason for the Russian actions and begin to turn the corner on a reputation badly smeared through decades of USA politics.

I would be concerned now with the treatment and outcomes of the military officers arrested by the Georgian government.


President Mikhail Saakashvili. He dresses up well, doesn't he? A little spit and polish to any genocidist make them look respectable.

Georgia's top defense officers arrested in attempted coup
TBILISI, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Several top Georgian Defense Ministry officials were arrested on Tuesday for an attempted coup, which ended without violence after most mutineers surrendered, officials said.
"It's over. Most of the people have surrendered," Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.
Georgian officials said servicemen of an armored cavalry battalion based in Mukhrovani, 30 km from Tbilisi, mutinied earlier in the day. President Mikhail Saakashvili viewed the mutiny as "a very serious incident," according to the Interfax news agency.
Defense Minister David Sikharulidze said the mutiny had been planned "on a broader scale" and was aimed at foiling the planned NATO exercise in Georgia.
"The general objective was to topple the government with an armed revolt," he added....

It would have been more than interesting if the 'coup' actually took place while attacking NATO troops on exercise. Then where would the USA have been in their alliance with Europe? The entire mess could have errupted into a global war and of all things, Russia would have been fighting the good fight.

The former Soviet states need to get their act together and turn the new Berlin Wall into a demilitarized zone. Enough of this haphazard militarization. It is far too dangerous and too open to interpretation to have those countries armed as if they could actually defeat Moscow. The people in those nations have a right to a peaceful coexitence without power struggles between communist governments and those of a democratic nature (although under Bush one would never recognize democracy if it bit them in the fanny.)