Mexico swine flu deaths spur closure of schools, museums, libraries

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This article was published 24/04/2009 (6013 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MEXICO CITY – A unique strain of swine flu is the suspected killer of dozens of people in Mexico, where authorities closed schools, museums, libraries and theatres in the capital on Friday to try to contain an outbreak that has spurred concerns of a global flu epidemic.

The worrisome new virus – which combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before – has also sickened at least eight people in Texas and California.

The outbreak caused alarm in Mexico, where more than 1,000 people have been sickened. Residents of the capital donned surgical masks and authorities ordered the most sweeping shutdown of public gathering places in a quarter century. President Felipe Calderon met with his cabinet Friday to co-ordinate Mexico’s response.

Authorities in Mexico urged people to avoid hospitals unless they had a medical emergency, since hospitals are centers of infection. They also said Mexicans should refrain from customary greetings such as shaking hands or kissing cheeks. At Mexico City’s international airport, passengers were questioned to try to prevent anyone with flu symptoms from boarding airplanes and spreading the disease.

In Mexico City, “literally hundreds and thousands of travellers come in and out every day,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota.

“You’d have to believe there’s been more unrecognized transmission that’s occurred.”

Epidemiologists are particularly concerned because the only fatalities so far were in young people and adults.

Mexico’s Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordoba said 68 people have died of flu and the new swine flu strain had been confirmed in 20 of those deaths. At least 1,004 people nationwide were sick from the suspected flu, he said.

The geographical spread of the outbreaks also concerned the WHO – while 13 of the 20 deaths were in Mexico City, the rest were spread across Mexico – four in central San Luis Potosi, two up near the U.S. border in Baja California, and one in southern Oaxaca state.

Cordoba said Mexico has enough of the flu-fighting drug Tamiflu to treat one million people, but the medicine will be strictly controlled and handed out only by doctors.

Mexico’s government had maintained until late Thursday that there was nothing unusual about the flu cases, although this year’s flu season had been worse and longer than past years.

The sudden turnaround by public health officials angered many Mexicans.

“They could have stopped it in time,” said Araceli Cruz, 24, a university student who emerged from the subway wearing a surgical mask. “Now they’ve let it spread to other people.”

The city was handing out free surgical masks to passengers on buses and the subway system, which carries five million people each day. Government workers were ordered to wear the masks, and authorities urged residents to stay home from work if they felt ill.

Closing schools across Mexico’s capital of 20 million kept 6.1 million students home, as well as thousands of university students. All state and city-run cultural activities were suspended, including libraries, state-run theatres, and at least 14 museums. Private athletic clubs closed down and soccer leagues were considering canceling weekend games.

The closures were the first citywide shutdown of public gathering places since thousands died in the devastating 1985 earthquake.

Mexico’s response brought to mind other major outbreaks, such as when SARS hit Asia. At its peak in 2003, Beijing shuttered schools, cinemas and restaurants, and thousands of people were quarantined at home.

In March 2008, Hong Kong ordered more than a half-million students to stay home for two weeks because of a flu outbreak. It was the first such closure in Hong Kong since the outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.

“It’s great they are taking precautions,” said Lillian Molina, a teacher at the Montessori’s World preschool in Mexico City, who scrubbed down empty classrooms with Clorox, soap and Lysol between fielding calls from worried parents.