# 1143
Sometimes stories pop up that are, at best, tenuously linked to bird flu. I generally try to avoid these speculative reports, at least until we get more solid information. Most turn out to be false alarms.
Today WorldNetDaily, a netzine with a decidedly conservative bent, is carrying an article about an outbreak of a mysterious disease in Mexico and linking it possibly to `bird flu'.
This report, which comes from a Spanish website called El Universal, doesn't provide enough detail to conclude, one way or another, whether this outbreak is the result of bird flu. The symptoms are non-specific, and no deaths have been reported.
Frankly, this could be almost anything. There is nothing about the symptoms (extreme headaches, stomachaches, vomiting, diarrhea and other weaknesses) that screams `avian flu'.
I normally wouldn't even bring a highly speculative report like this up, except it has been picked up by the newsfeeds now, and has been posted to some of the flu forums.
Every day, somewhere in the world, there is an outbreak of something. Water borne illnesses, mosquito borne illnesses, food borne illnesses, and even infectious diseases. We live in a world filled with pathogens. While avian flu is always a possibility, it comes pretty far down the list of likely suspects.
Obviously, any outbreak of an infectious and (as yet) unidentified disease is something to watch. And how well local authorities react to a disease outbreak, even if it doesn't turn out to be bird flu, can tell us a lot about their preparedness for a pandemic.
For those interested, here is the WND article. For now, I remain skeptical that this is a bird flu related illness.
As always, Caveat Lector.
Dozens in Mexican city ill with suspected avian flu
Raises concerns over international implications of epidemic
Posted: September 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern© 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.
El Universal is confirming that authorities in a neighborhood in Guanajuato 45 patients have been given medical attention at the area's hospital after they reported symptoms including extreme headaches, stomachaches, vomiting, diarrhea and other weaknesses.
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.
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