24 Mar Twitter & (A)H1N1

I logged into Twitter four days ago to try to catch up with what is happening in Haiti around the election. Instead, i got distracted by the AH1N1 trend. The Health Minister of Venezuela stated that there have been 179 confirmed cases, with another 200 suspected samples being tested. Estimates of deaths range from one to three.

It doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal, overall – so why then is it trending madly on Twitter? It’s been four days, already, of trending. I’ve read only a few news articles on line  – all of which have been in Spanish. There seems to be nothing in English language news sources. Ahhh…right – it’s H1N1 in English… (???)

We have not yet returned to the pandemic state – it’s still being called an outbreak. but i think the WHO is going to be a little more cautious in its handling of this outbreak. The Report of the Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) and on Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 outlined in the NYT article found that the WHO did a poor job of managing vaccine disbursement, but great job monitoring the outbreak.

Venezuela is not taking any chances this go ’round. CNN reports that nightclubs and schools have been closed for five days and continue to be closed in Merida. The Venezuelan Health Ministry responded to the outbreak with an announcement of the activation of epidemiological screening; however, because all of the cases were in central Venezuela, the Scientific Network of Venezuelan Health Ministers decided it would be ineffective.

Apparently, there are reports of eight cases in Juarez, 15 in Chihuahua, and one case in Cuauhtémoc.

Overall, what caught my attention on Twitter was sarcasm – virtual eye rolling and snickering, and comments to the effect that H1N1 is spreading faster on Twitter than in reality…hrm…