Comments on: Did water shortages contribute to swine flu?

By: Maria Morales

Maria Morales — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:45:04 +0000

Lindsay: you are arriving at a conclusion that other have seen. When I was teaching a class this past summer on Environmental Science, I mentioned the disparity of fatalities in Mexico. “What was so special about this location?” I asked the class thinking out loud to myself. Then one of the T.A.’s mentioned that he had been to Mexico visiting relatives and pinpointed the ease of spread on the lack of water. Somehow this didn’t make mainstream news. Imagine only having access to water for a few hours every two weeks. You can only store so much. So then comes the decision, do you cook a meal or wash? Hygiene standards obviously drop. Not out of choice, but out of reality. He also stated his disbelief in that his relatives still paid their water bill for lousy service by USA standards. Their comment: if we don’t–then they’ll cut it off completely. One of medicine’s greatest inventions is hot water and soap. It may have more power than we realize.

By: paul Eaton-Jones

paul Eaton-Jones — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:24:16 +0000

Sheer lunacy. As for deborahbyrd and everything being connected – well yeh!!! Equally bonkers. How far are you going to go with that thought? I’m surprised the ‘butterfly flapping its wings….’ and ‘for the want of a nail the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe the horse was lost…’ sayings weren’t invoked. Equally surprising is that nobody has claimed the CIA/FBI/MI6 or aliens from Nibiru have had a hand/tentacle in the outbreak. Turn your energies to reading some science reports on it.

By: deborahbyrd

deborahbyrd — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:51:12 +0000

Lindsay, interesting idea. I’ll bet things in our world are much more connected – in more subtle ways – than we currently can imagine.

By: Saul Tanner

Saul Tanner — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:43:55 +0000

I think you’ve got something here, at least, a great starting point, thanks.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:55:17 +0000

I agree with Sara on her assessment of what water shortages might imply. Between agriculture, disease, and of course, concerns about drinking water, we have many reasons to get smarter about water.

So much of the water shortage has to do with water management and land use. For example, in the American Southwest, the depleting Colorado River is posing a choice between supplying desert cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix, and irrigating a huge amount of America’s agriculture. Eventually, there won’t be water enough for both, and people will start having to make smarter, more conservative choices with water.

In Mexico City, the problem is that the city’s aquifer was being pumped out faster than it had time to fill, in order to supply the sprawl. There was a lack of smart growth, and clearly, the correct steps were not taken when the water situation reached a critical level.

As far as the swine flu itself (or, as I’m trying to call it, the “H1N1″ virus), it has infected far more than 500 – the reason we freaked out to begin with is that it’s sickened 2,400 in Mexico. I’m not too sure about what the WHO’s entomology means, but they are probably not raising the levels of alert without case. I think it’s the role of the media to inform people about the flu and what they should do, what causes it, and that you can still eat pork (mmm…. pork tacos, bacon). I haven’t seen the 24-hour news cycle, but I’m sure it’s causing a lot of unnecessary face mask purchases.

Anyhow, I was happy that Obama told the nation to wash their hands at his press conference, like a good father of the country.

By: Jennifer and Ronald

Jennifer and Ronald — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:00:41 +0000

this is very not intresting, no one wants your opionns thanks/

By: Benjamin Napier

Benjamin Napier — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:34:32 +0000

I would say your “wacky theory” has more merit than the reaction of the WHO and our governement. We are calling this a pandemic when fewer than 500 cases have been found world wide. Clearly not even an epidemic. Simply a scare tactic or an exercise.

The funny thing about the “swine” flu is that pigs don’t have it nor do they transfer it to humans. We have a lot to learn about viruses and how they replicate, mutate and move from one host to another. Generally, the infectious stage is before the symptoms appear. SO, after folks are sneezing and coughing, it is too late to quarrantine them or avoid them.

The idea of water shortages might have an effect might well be valid. In addition to not washing, a general water shortage might well cause stresses on individuals that could lower natural resistance giving the disease a start in the human population.

Remember, the Mayans that lived in that area were wiped out by drought centuries ago. Could we be seeing a rerun?

And to the previous comment by Sara: I think you are on the right track. “If goovernment is the answer, it is a stupid question.”

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:53:38 +0000

This strikes me as a pretty sound wacky theory. I haven’t seen any reporting on or analysis of the impact that water shortages, which we all know are coming in an extreme way in the next few decades, will impact the spread of disease (although we read plenty on the impact on the spread of golf courses). The notion that charging more for water will help conserve water may just mean that, like Lindsay says, we will set ourselves up for global pandemics, because agriculture and food preparation certainly are not going away any time soon.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:43:40 +0000

Interesting Theory. So you’re saying that if it really started with the young boy, he was still getting his drink on but decided to come in one day after touching piggly wiggly’s and forgot to wash his hands before supper?

I think the lack of water (if this is actually true) accounts for a lot of problematic consequences other than the lack of washing your hands. Like not bathing in general for instance. What about the swine though? Maybe there’s more of a connection here like perhaps the water the pigs were drinking was shared between humans and whatnot. Maybe some village idiot decided that the water the pigs were drinking started to look appetizing.