Arsenic may lie behind Mexican deaths

Thursday May 21st, 2009

Arsenic may have been responsible for the high level of deaths from swine flu in Mexico, researchers said today.

As the global total of infections passed 10,000, researchers said they had shown in tests that low levels of arsenic weaken the immune system's ability to fight swine flu.

Researchers conducted the tests because they knew that Mexican well water can be contaminated with arsenic.

The latest figures confirm some 72 deaths in Mexico and 3,648 infections. Some 5,469 infections have been recorded in the USA and six deaths.

Researcher Joshua Hamilton, of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Massachusetts, USA, said: "We don't know that the Mexicans who got the flu were drinking high levels of arsenic, but it's an intriguing notion that this may have contributed."

The theory was tested on laboratory mice, which proved unable to resist the H1N1 virus after spending five weeks drinking arsenic-laced water. The findings are published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

* According to the World Health Organisation, 41 countries have officially reported 10,243 cases of infection, including 80 deaths.

In Britain the total number of confirmed swine flu cases has reached 109.

Environ Health Perspec. t doi:10.1289/ehp.0900911 available via http://dx.doi.org/

Tags: Flu & Viruses | North America | Respiratory | Traveller Health | UK News | World Health

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