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http://goldenwriting.com/wordpress/2009/04/30/swine-flu-in-mexico-from-us-ex-pats-perspective/

Swine Flu in Mexico from U.S. Ex-Pat’s Perspective
Posted April 30th, 2009 by Caron. .

My good friend, writer and photographer Paula McDonald, has lived in Mexico for decades, first in Rosarito and now in Puerto Escondido, a small coastal village in Central Mexico. She sent me a note today about what’s happening in Mexico and I thought it was worth sharing:

A bit of truth from the local scene down here: Evidently, the way this whole swine flu thing started was a small epidemic in a village called La Gloria near Jalapa, Veracruz. (Jalapa, as in where the jalapeno peppers originated). A U.S.-owned multi-national company, Sheffield Foods, has an enormous pig farm there. 450 villagers got sick after complaining for some time about the contamination of the local water by the pig farm. They were diagnosed with “acute respiratory infections.” During the outbreak, Sheffield treated the locals with anti-flu vaccines but never reported it. Three infants/toddlers died. Turns out that a substantial number of the villagers work during the week in Mexico City and return home for the weekends. It wasn’t until the flu spread to Mexico City that it hit the fan, and the rest is history. The Jalapa outbreak was over a month ago, in late February, and the entire epidemic most likely could have been prevented if Sheffield had notified the World Health Organization at that time. Let’s see what happens next.

Nobody seems to know why people are dying in Mexico City and not elsewhere, but speculation is that, since this is a respiratory-based influenza, the combination of high altitude and the horrible air quality in one of the most polluted cities in the world is what’s causing the fatal combo. Most of the deaths in Mexico City from this are from severe pneumonia complications. Let’s hope that’s it, and that the rest of the world keeps this thing under control. I’d hate for the world to end just when we’ve moved to Puerto and gotten most of our boxes unpacked.

Armando’s son lives in Mexico City and was here for the weekend (no water in the house, of course, thanks to the city water system not delivering any to us Friday). He says all the restaurants and bars are closed, and now they’ve closed all the taco stands and street food stands. No church services, no gatherings of any kind. The professional soccer game on Sunday was played in an empty stadium. Nobody is on the streets and the parks are empty. People are really scared, but I agree that more people die each year of regular flu, and this has been blown out of all proportion by the media. I hope it passes quickly and doesn’t turn into a world crisis. We have enough crisises gong on right now.

And, to put it in perspective, our Baja renter’s son, 18, who is in Argentina right now, is trying desparately to get out of there because of the widespread outbreak of Dengue Fever, which is killing a lot of people, so it all depends on where you are. They finally got him a flight two days from now and he’s just holed up in his hotel room with bottles of mosquito spray, also afraid to go outside.

So pick your plague, I guess.

I wasn’t very surprised to read this. Now, will the truth of this come out?