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THE Daily Star Sunday has found the Mexican ?swine? responsible for the flu panic that has spread across the globe.
We tracked down a pile of decomposing pigs believed to be the source of the outbreak that originated in La Gloria, 250 kilometres east of Mexico City.
The tiny village is where samples taken from a five-year-old boy on April 3 remain the earliest yet confirmed case of the disease.
Locals say they blame the flu on the pig waste left rotting in wells all around the town after being disposed of by farms.
Last night one local said: ?Government officials agree with us. These rotting pigs are almost certainly where it all began.?
During our visit to Mexico we also heard shock claims from medics that the government is suppressing the true number of swine flu deaths to avert global hysteria.
Dr Manuel Lazo claims there could be more than four times the 101 fatalities and 358 confirmed cases reported by Mexico to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The leading gastroentero-logist, who owns a private clinic in the border city of Tijuana, told the Daily Star Sunday yesterday: ?The real figures are being suppressed. We have heard first-hand reports from people south of Mexico City that the body count is much higher than has been revealed.
?There is no vaccine and no one has yet been able to work out the mortality rate of this virus.
?What we do strongly suspect, however, is that current statistics are being suppressed.?
Dr Lazo, 61, believes the numbers may have been doctored because Mexico dreads worldwide condemnation.
He also fears the swine flu outbreak will now spread ?like wildfire? across the USA and beyond.
WHO has already confirm ed that the declaration of a global pandemic is ?imminent?.
Dr Lazo attempted to assist our investigative team to enter the massive government-run General Hospital in Tijuana, where at least ten suspected cases have been reported.
We were met by armed federal troops and photographer Nick Stern briefly had a camera confiscated.
When we asked if we could see the isolation wards and interview victims and staff we were told to leave immediately.
Queues of locals, worried they may be infected, stretched beyond the heavily-guarded hospital?s gates into the street.
Mexico today enters its third day of self-imposed ?national quarantine? with all schools, sports arenas and many restaurants closed.
We witnessed at first hand the nightmarish effects the outbreak is having on millions of people. In Mexico City, streets are eerily empty, save for handfuls of locals, many wearing surgical masks.
In the east coast resort of Cancun and the millionaires? playground of Acapulco to the south, beaches normally packed with holidaymakers were virtually deserted, with some European airlines offering free emergency flights home for tourists, including hundreds of Brits.
In Tijuana, where drug cartels are engaged in a bloody war with police and troops, streets normally bustling with activity resembled those portrayed in the apocalyptic sci-fi movie I Am Legend.
And 25 miles down the coast, in the seaside enclave of Rosarito, where Hollywood blockbuster Titanic was filmed, we saw just one young family on a vast stretch of the main beach.
Pablo Avila, 35, his wife Giovana, 21, and their six-year-old son Pablo Jr. were all wearing masks.
Pablo said: ?This should have been like paradise for us. Instead, it is like a nightmare.?
We tracked down a pile of decomposing pigs believed to be the source of the outbreak that originated in La Gloria, 250 kilometres east of Mexico City.
The tiny village is where samples taken from a five-year-old boy on April 3 remain the earliest yet confirmed case of the disease.
Locals say they blame the flu on the pig waste left rotting in wells all around the town after being disposed of by farms.
Last night one local said: ?Government officials agree with us. These rotting pigs are almost certainly where it all began.?
During our visit to Mexico we also heard shock claims from medics that the government is suppressing the true number of swine flu deaths to avert global hysteria.
Dr Manuel Lazo claims there could be more than four times the 101 fatalities and 358 confirmed cases reported by Mexico to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The leading gastroentero-logist, who owns a private clinic in the border city of Tijuana, told the Daily Star Sunday yesterday: ?The real figures are being suppressed. We have heard first-hand reports from people south of Mexico City that the body count is much higher than has been revealed.
?There is no vaccine and no one has yet been able to work out the mortality rate of this virus.
?What we do strongly suspect, however, is that current statistics are being suppressed.?
Dr Lazo, 61, believes the numbers may have been doctored because Mexico dreads worldwide condemnation.
He also fears the swine flu outbreak will now spread ?like wildfire? across the USA and beyond.
WHO has already confirm ed that the declaration of a global pandemic is ?imminent?.
Dr Lazo attempted to assist our investigative team to enter the massive government-run General Hospital in Tijuana, where at least ten suspected cases have been reported.
We were met by armed federal troops and photographer Nick Stern briefly had a camera confiscated.
When we asked if we could see the isolation wards and interview victims and staff we were told to leave immediately.
Queues of locals, worried they may be infected, stretched beyond the heavily-guarded hospital?s gates into the street.
Mexico today enters its third day of self-imposed ?national quarantine? with all schools, sports arenas and many restaurants closed.
We witnessed at first hand the nightmarish effects the outbreak is having on millions of people. In Mexico City, streets are eerily empty, save for handfuls of locals, many wearing surgical masks.
In the east coast resort of Cancun and the millionaires? playground of Acapulco to the south, beaches normally packed with holidaymakers were virtually deserted, with some European airlines offering free emergency flights home for tourists, including hundreds of Brits.
In Tijuana, where drug cartels are engaged in a bloody war with police and troops, streets normally bustling with activity resembled those portrayed in the apocalyptic sci-fi movie I Am Legend.
And 25 miles down the coast, in the seaside enclave of Rosarito, where Hollywood blockbuster Titanic was filmed, we saw just one young family on a vast stretch of the main beach.
Pablo Avila, 35, his wife Giovana, 21, and their six-year-old son Pablo Jr. were all wearing masks.
Pablo said: ?This should have been like paradise for us. Instead, it is like a nightmare.?
