Monday, July 27, 2009

New Outbreak in Mexico

In recent discussions with the director of the Institute for Respiratory Diseases and other physicians, I learned more about a new surge in H1N1 in Mexico. The most severe cases are occurring in the state of Chiapas. Patients there who are on respirators currently have a 50 percent mortality rate. This is very similar to the rate for patients who were initially on respirators at the Institute for Respiratory Diseases. The Institute recently sent some faculty and medical residents to Chiapas to add greatly needed expertise to their efforts there.

By December of this year, Mexico will have 20 million doses of a vaccine for H1N1 available. In the meantime, they are wrestling with how to choose the population that will receive the vaccine. Should it be administered to the high-risk young adults? Children, who most frequently transmit the virus? Or pregnant adult women? The next difficult decision will be choosing which people in that targeted group will receive the vaccine.

This is indeed a complex situation for Mexico, which they are dealing with in a very thoughtful and organized manner. I have traveled to other countries in Latin America contending with the disease in their winter season. It appears there is a clear contrast in response to H1N1, and I gained first-person insights on the situation there, which I will write posts on soon.

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