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Mexican Boy’s Recovery From Swine Flu May Signal Nation on Mend
2009-04-30 05:00:03.0 GMT
By Andres R. Martinez
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- La Gloria, the remote Mexican town
where the first case of swine flu was confirmed in a 5-year-old
boy, is almost back to normal four weeks after a third of its
3,000 residents came down with flu-like symptoms.
In the center of the village, 110 miles east of Mexico City
in Veracruz state, people ventured out of their homes to use
public pay phones. Boys pedaled their bicycles down the street,
enjoying the time off from school after the federal government
ordered a nationwide closure to contain a swine flu outbreak
that may have killed more than 150 people.
“Everything is getting back to normal,” said Ricardo
Caballos, 18, who runs his parents’ corner grocery store,
Miscelanea Richie. “People aren’t as worried now.”
The scene in La Gloria, where most people are farm workers
who tend to bean and corn fields, signals that life may soon
return to normal throughout Mexico as the rate of infection and
deaths levels off. In Mexico City, a region of 19.2 million
people where most of the country’s 2,399 suspected swine flu
cases are concentrated, residents stay home or hide their faces
behind breathing masks when walking the unusually quiet streets.
About 1,300 people in Mexico are hospitalized with flu
symptoms, while the rate of mortality has held steady over the
past few days, Health Minister Jose Cordova said. There have
been 99 confirmed cases of swine flu, with eight confirmed
deaths. Pharmacies in Mexico City are having a hard time keeping
face masks in stock, and some staple grocery items such as
canned tuna can be difficult to find.
Government Response
Mexico’s federal government has canceled classes for all
students through May 6 and urged businesses where crowds gather,
such as night clubs and theaters, to shut their doors. The
capital’s government has ordered that all restaurants, movie
theaters, convention centers and gyms shut down.
Some of the emergency measures may be lifted after this
weekend if the pace of new cases abates, Mario Delgado, the
city’s finance secretary, said yesterday in an interview.
The World Health Organization warned yesterday that the
first influenza pandemic since 1968 is “imminent” and urged
stepped-up preparations after swine flu was confirmed by lab
tests in at least nine countries and 11 U.S. states. WHO raised
the level of its six-tier alert system to 5, indicating little
time remains for countries to complete emergency plans.
First Victim
Edgar Hernandez, the boy whose tests confirmed he was
Mexico’s first swine-flu victim, played in his yard yesterday,
running in a red t-shirt with a white face mask hanging from his
neck. He had a persistent cough.
Edgar first began showing symptoms of the illness in mid-
March. His temperature reached as high as 40 degrees Celsius
(104 degrees Fahrenheit), he didn’t eat for three days and
couldn’t sleep, his mother Maria del Carmen Hernandez said.
“I thought I was going to die,” Edgar said in an
interview at his parents’ home in La Gloria. “My head hurt so
much.”
He saw a doctor at a local clinic who diagnosed him with a
throat infection and gave him the amoxicillin, an antibiotic
that viruses wouldn’t normally respond to. He recovered over the
next few days.
Edgar wasn’t the first to get sick in La Gloria with flu-
like symptoms. Five classmates had stayed home from school the
previous week with what they thought was a cold. Eventually,
about a third of the town’s residents exhibited some symptoms of
flu.
Lab Tests
Mexico’s health ministry sent doctors to the town April 2
after reports about the infections. At least 30 samples were
taken from possible cases and sent for testing, according to the
Health Ministry. Initially, authorities told Edgar and his
family he had contracted a known strain of the flu. On April 26
they notified them that he was the first confirmed case of swine
flu in Mexico, based on sputum samples tested in Canada. The
others tested negative for swine flu.
Medical workers from Mexico’s social security and social
services agencies remain in the town, providing care and follow-
up services. The local clinic is partially shut so it can be
disinfected and repainted.
Some people in the town, including Guadalupe Garcia, a 32-
year-old mother of three, have said that the outbreak may have
been caused by runoff and waste from a pig farm 30 kilometers
northeast of La Gloria.
The owners of the farm, Granjas Carroll de Mexico SA, a
joint venture with Smithfield Foods Inc., have denied the claim.
“All our pigs have been vaccinated -- this couldn’t have
begun here,” said Tito Tablada Cortez, head of public relations
for Carroll. “We are educating our workers to prevent them from
being exposed to the human-to-human flu that has spread in
Mexico.”
Edgar was the only confirmed case of swine flu in La
Gloria, though other residents think they were also victims.
Jose Hernandez Guevara, a 40-year-old farm worker, is
convinced that he also had the swine flu too a few weeks back.
He said he was severely ill for five days with joint aches, eye
pain and fever.
“I never felt anything like that in my life,” he said.
For Related News and Information:
For reports on swine flu, see EXT3 <go>
Top Latin America stories: TOPL <go>
Today’s most popular health-care stories: MNI HEA <go>
Bloomberg Drug Database: BDRG <go>
--Editors: Brendan Walsh, Jim Aley</go></go></go></go>
Mexican Boy’s Recovery From Swine Flu May Signal Nation on Mend
2009-04-30 05:00:03.0 GMT
By Andres R. Martinez
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- La Gloria, the remote Mexican town
where the first case of swine flu was confirmed in a 5-year-old
boy, is almost back to normal four weeks after a third of its
3,000 residents came down with flu-like symptoms.
In the center of the village, 110 miles east of Mexico City
in Veracruz state, people ventured out of their homes to use
public pay phones. Boys pedaled their bicycles down the street,
enjoying the time off from school after the federal government
ordered a nationwide closure to contain a swine flu outbreak
that may have killed more than 150 people.
“Everything is getting back to normal,” said Ricardo
Caballos, 18, who runs his parents’ corner grocery store,
Miscelanea Richie. “People aren’t as worried now.”
The scene in La Gloria, where most people are farm workers
who tend to bean and corn fields, signals that life may soon
return to normal throughout Mexico as the rate of infection and
deaths levels off. In Mexico City, a region of 19.2 million
people where most of the country’s 2,399 suspected swine flu
cases are concentrated, residents stay home or hide their faces
behind breathing masks when walking the unusually quiet streets.
About 1,300 people in Mexico are hospitalized with flu
symptoms, while the rate of mortality has held steady over the
past few days, Health Minister Jose Cordova said. There have
been 99 confirmed cases of swine flu, with eight confirmed
deaths. Pharmacies in Mexico City are having a hard time keeping
face masks in stock, and some staple grocery items such as
canned tuna can be difficult to find.
Government Response
Mexico’s federal government has canceled classes for all
students through May 6 and urged businesses where crowds gather,
such as night clubs and theaters, to shut their doors. The
capital’s government has ordered that all restaurants, movie
theaters, convention centers and gyms shut down.
Some of the emergency measures may be lifted after this
weekend if the pace of new cases abates, Mario Delgado, the
city’s finance secretary, said yesterday in an interview.
The World Health Organization warned yesterday that the
first influenza pandemic since 1968 is “imminent” and urged
stepped-up preparations after swine flu was confirmed by lab
tests in at least nine countries and 11 U.S. states. WHO raised
the level of its six-tier alert system to 5, indicating little
time remains for countries to complete emergency plans.
First Victim
Edgar Hernandez, the boy whose tests confirmed he was
Mexico’s first swine-flu victim, played in his yard yesterday,
running in a red t-shirt with a white face mask hanging from his
neck. He had a persistent cough.
Edgar first began showing symptoms of the illness in mid-
March. His temperature reached as high as 40 degrees Celsius
(104 degrees Fahrenheit), he didn’t eat for three days and
couldn’t sleep, his mother Maria del Carmen Hernandez said.
“I thought I was going to die,” Edgar said in an
interview at his parents’ home in La Gloria. “My head hurt so
much.”
He saw a doctor at a local clinic who diagnosed him with a
throat infection and gave him the amoxicillin, an antibiotic
that viruses wouldn’t normally respond to. He recovered over the
next few days.
Edgar wasn’t the first to get sick in La Gloria with flu-
like symptoms. Five classmates had stayed home from school the
previous week with what they thought was a cold. Eventually,
about a third of the town’s residents exhibited some symptoms of
flu.
Lab Tests
Mexico’s health ministry sent doctors to the town April 2
after reports about the infections. At least 30 samples were
taken from possible cases and sent for testing, according to the
Health Ministry. Initially, authorities told Edgar and his
family he had contracted a known strain of the flu. On April 26
they notified them that he was the first confirmed case of swine
flu in Mexico, based on sputum samples tested in Canada. The
others tested negative for swine flu.
Medical workers from Mexico’s social security and social
services agencies remain in the town, providing care and follow-
up services. The local clinic is partially shut so it can be
disinfected and repainted.
Some people in the town, including Guadalupe Garcia, a 32-
year-old mother of three, have said that the outbreak may have
been caused by runoff and waste from a pig farm 30 kilometers
northeast of La Gloria.
The owners of the farm, Granjas Carroll de Mexico SA, a
joint venture with Smithfield Foods Inc., have denied the claim.
“All our pigs have been vaccinated -- this couldn’t have
begun here,” said Tito Tablada Cortez, head of public relations
for Carroll. “We are educating our workers to prevent them from
being exposed to the human-to-human flu that has spread in
Mexico.”
Edgar was the only confirmed case of swine flu in La
Gloria, though other residents think they were also victims.
Jose Hernandez Guevara, a 40-year-old farm worker, is
convinced that he also had the swine flu too a few weeks back.
He said he was severely ill for five days with joint aches, eye
pain and fever.
“I never felt anything like that in my life,” he said.
For Related News and Information:
For reports on swine flu, see EXT3 <go>
Top Latin America stories: TOPL <go>
Today’s most popular health-care stories: MNI HEA <go>
Bloomberg Drug Database: BDRG <go>
--Editors: Brendan Walsh, Jim Aley</go></go></go></go>