*Dozens in Mexican city ill with suspected avian flu
Raises concerns over international implications of epidemic*
Global Research, September 28, 2007
WorldNetDaily.com
Dozens of people in a Mexican city are gravely ill with what is being
treated as a possible outbreak of avian flu, according to a new report
from a Spanish-language website.
According to El Universal, authorities in a neighborhood in Guanajuato
say 45 patients have been given medical attention at the area's hospital
after they reported symptoms including extreme headaches, stomachaches,
vomiting and diarrhea.
The cases have developed over the last two weeks and "feel [like]
death," according to Silvia Villalobos, one of the victims who spoke to
El Universal correspondent Xochitl Alvarez in Spanish.
A spokesman for the regional general hospital, Ernesto Castle, said he
does not know the cause of the problems, but officials are looking at an
avian flu virus, which is transmitted by birds and is similar to
botulism, as a source.
He reported at least 45 patients have been given emergency room medical
attention, while others went to their private physicians for help.
One man reported his wife was hospitalized after the symptoms hit,
waking her with fever and chills, before she fainted.
Guadalupe Gomez, a resident of the area, said her concern was that the
epidemic was being carried by flies attracted by leather processed in
the tanning industry, which includes leathers from other nations.
City spokesman Jose Eusebio Olague said officials have directed that
barricades be set up so the sick do not spread the infections even further.
Traditional causes for fever and chills essentially have been ruled out
by various tests, officials said. Sources in the air, water and other
industries have been eliminated as a cause, officials said.
This type of threat was addressed at the recent Security and Prosperity
Partnership of North America summit in Canada, where officials released
a plan that establishes U.N. law along with regulations by the World
Trade Organization and World Health Organization as supreme over U.S.
law during a pandemic. It also sets the stage for militarizing the
management of continental health emergencies.
The "North American Plan for Avian & Pandemic Influenza" was finalized
at the SPP summit last month in Montebello, Quebec.
At the same time, the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, has created a
webpage dedicated to avian flu and has been running exercises in
preparation for the possible use of U.S. military forces in a
continental domestic emergency involving avian flu or pandemic influenza.
With virtually no media attention, in 2005 President Bush shifted U.S.
policy on avian flu and pandemic influenza, placing the country under
international guidelines not specifically determined by domestic agencies.
The policy shift was formalized Sept. 14, 2005, when Bush announced a
new International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza to a
High-Level Plenary Meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, in New York.
The new International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza was
designed to supersede an earlier November 2005 Homeland Security report
that called for a U.S. national strategy that would be coordinated by
the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Agriculture.
The 2005 plan, operative until Bush announced the International
Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza, directed the State
Department to work with the WHO and U.N., but it does not mention that
international health controls are to be considered controlling over
relevant U.S. statutes or authorities.
Under the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza,
Bush agreed the U.S. would work through the U.N. system influenza
coordinator to develop a continental emergency response plan operating
through authorities under the WTO, North American Free Trade Agreement
and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
The SPP plan for avian and pandemic influenza announced at the Canadian
summit last month embraces the international control principles Bush
first announced to the U.N. in his 2005 International Partnership on
Avian and Pandemic Influenza declaration. David Nabarro is new U.N.
system influenza coordinator
In Sept. 2005, Dr. David Nabarro was appointed the first U.N. system
influenza coordinator, a position which also places him as a senior
policy adviser to the U.N. director-general.
Nabarro soon after fueled the global fear that an epidemic was virtually
inevitable.
In response to a question about the 1918-1919 flu pandemic that killed
approximately 40 million people worldwide, Nabarro commented, "I am
certain there will be another pandemic sometime."
Nabarro stressed at the press conference that he saw as inevitable a
worldwide pandemic influenza coming soon that would kill millions.
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