Asked why there were so many deaths in Mexico, and none so far among the U.S. cases, Cordova noted that the U.S. cases involved children — who haven't been among the fatal cases in Mexico, either.
"There are immune factors that are giving children some sort of defense, that is the only explanation we have," he said.
Another factor may be that some Mexican patients may have delayed seeking medical help too long, Cordova said.
SHOOT: This is shocking - there was a 3 fold increase in flu diagnosis in Mexico in late March and the present month, and Mexican mis-diagnosed this as a late rebound of ordinary flu. A 3 fold increase that has had a month to germinate in Mexico.
US citizens are surviving because the infected, so far, have all been children. Young adults with a more sophisticated immunity (and thus more antibodies) have not experienced the virus on home soil.
A team from the CDC was in Mexico to help set up detection testing for the swine flu strain, something Mexico previously lacked.
Health authorities noticed a threefold spike in flu cases in late March and early April, but thought it was a late rebound in the December-February flu season.
Testing at domestic labs did not alert doctors to the new strain. Health Secretary Jose Cordova acknowledged Mexican labs lacked the profiling data needed to detect the previously unknown strain.
Even though U.S. labs detected the swine flu in California and Texas before last weekend, Mexican authorities as recently as Wednesday were referring to it as a late-season flu.
But mid-afternoon Thursday, Mexico City Health Secretary Dr. Armando Ahued said, officials got a call "from the United States and Canada, the most important laboratories in the field, telling us this was a new virus."
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