Evidently Venezuela's current flu outbreak has triggered the political equivalent of a cytokine storm. Via El Universal, a report datelined Maracaibo: Diputado Barrientos: "400 mil casos de AH1N1 oculta el Gobierno". [Deputy Barrientos: "Government hiding 400,000 H1N1 cases"] Excerpt, with my translation:
"De las 23 entidades federales del país, la gripe AH1N1 llegó a 20. A pesar de la falta de registros oficiales, sobre todo en casos de muerte, se habla de 40 decesos por la influenza. Por cada fallecido hay nueve mil 900 infectados, lo que ubicado los casos en más de 400 mil en todo el país", afirmó, William Barrientos, diputado a la Asamblea Nacional por el Zulia.
"Of the country's 23 federal states, H1N1 flu has reached 20. Despite the lack of official records, especially deaths, some 40 persons are said to have died from influenza. For every death there are 9,900 cases, which would put the national total of cases at over 400,000," says William Barrientos, National Assembly deputy for Zulia state.
El legislador rechazó que las autoridades sanitarias no hayan aceptado que se trata de una epidemia, y no de un brote como aseguran.
The legislator claimed that health authorities have not accepted that they're dealing with an epidemic, and not just the outbreak they claim it to be.
"No se ha decretado la alerta porque en ese caso, el Gobierno tendría que reconocer que no se establecieron los cercos epidemiológicos de forma adecuada", dijo.
"They haven't decreed an alert because in that case the government would have to admit that they didn't establish adequate epidemiological barriers," he said.
El parlamentario desmintió a Isabel Iturria, ministra de Salud, quien recientemente aseguró que se habían vacunado a tres millones de personas en todo el país.
He denied Health Minister Isabel Iturria's recent claim that 3 million persons have been vaccinated nationwide.
"Las campañas de inmunización desde 2010 a 2012 no se cumplieron en su totalidad. Solo 18 % de la población infantil se vacunó en 2011, y 16 % en 2012", denunció.
"Immunization campaigns from 2010 to 2012 weren't totally completed. Only 18% of the child population was immunized in 2011 and 16% in 2012," he charged.
En el Táchira, Nelsa Contreras, adjunta de epidemiología de la Corporación Regional de Salud, aclaró que no está circulando en el Táchira el virus AH1N5 y, que los únicos virus que están registrados son el AH1N1 y AH3N2.
In Táchira, Nelsa Contreras, adjunct in epidemiologist with the Regional Health Corporation, clarified that the H5N1 virus is not circulating in Táchira, and said the only viruses recorded are H1N1 and H3N2.We still don't really know the numbers infected in the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, so a case fatality is hard to estimate. But the estimate given by Deputy Barrientos suggests the Venezuelan outbreak is killing only 0.04% of those infected. When the country is also suffering from one of the highest murder rates in the world, H1N1 deaths should be the least of their concerns.
As for having to deny a death from H5N1, that seems like a straight misunderstanding between a doctor and the family of a flu fatality. A confirmed case of human H5N1 anywhere in the western hemisphere would set off alarms worldwide.
