Why Is Swine Flu A Killer Only In Mexico?

Government Orders All School's Closed; More Than 140 Dead; Troubling Questions Arise Over Response

(CBS/AP)  The 39-year-old bricklayer fell ill two weeks ago and became one of the first Mexicans to die of swine flu. But no health worker has come to his home outside Mexico City to offer medicine or ask about the neighbors' pigs.

In fact, Gerardo Leyva Lolis' widow says nobody even told her he died of swine flu until The Associated Press informed her the case had been confirmed by the director of the hospital where he was rushed last week.

The family's experience raises troubling questions about Mexico's response to the epidemic and one of its greatest mysteries: why the disease is killing people in Mexico, but so far nowhere else.

"I don't know what to think," Antonia Cortes Borbolla said Sunday, holding back tears in the two-room wood and cinderblock home she shared with her husband and their three teenage sons in this rural town of 18,000 located 40 miles outside Mexico City.

Their neighbors - three of whom keep pigs in their yards - had harsher things to say about the failure of Mexican health officials to provide medicine to protect those closest to the swine flu victim.

"Not even they know what's going on," Sandra Estrada said of the dead man's family. "If it was (swine flu), why haven't they taken measures to protect the family?"

Epidemiologists need details about victims to locate the source of a viral outbreak and to understand how it spreads. There are antiviral drugs, including Tamiflu, that have been shown to be effective, but they need to be taken within days of the first symptoms. Experts also suggest they be given to those in close contact with flu victims, even if they don't show symptoms, to make sure they don't unwittingly spread the virus.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., the White House says "don’t panic," yet the race is on to contain the outbreak of swine flu that has proven to be deadly in Mexico where there are now more than 140 deaths, with more than 1,600 suspected cases. The Mexican government ordered all schools closed until May 6.

An official said New York City has 20 more confirmed cases of swine flu, raising the city's total to 28. The official says there are another 17 probable cases in New York City. The World Health Organization said there were 40 confirmed cases in the U.S. but no deaths.

Speaking before the National Academy of Sciences, President Obama said he is "closely monitoring" the swine flu situation, getting regular updates from the various public health agencies grappling with the problem. Mr. Obama said Americans can expect regular updates from these agencies as well.

President Felipe Calderon announced an emergency decree Saturday authorizing health workers to isolate patients and enter and search their homes to combat this flu.

But no such effort has been made with Leyva's family. His widow said she has been asked little and told even less since his death on April 20.

The president's office referred all inquiries about the case to the federal health department, where a spokeswoman said she had no information. Victor Torres, assistant epidemiology director at the state health institute, told the AP he needed another day before he could talk about the case.

But details provided by his family suggest Leyva could have been infecting people all over the crowded capital and the surrounding state of Mexico.

Leyva's widow said he first noticed flu symptoms on April 13, and went to the local clinic in Xonacatlan. No one was available to give him a checkup, but he was given a shot and felt well enough the next day to make the 40-mile bus trip to Mexico City, taking subways to work despite a nasty cough.

Too sick to work again after that, he still had no medical care except for a penicillin injection his niece gave him. By the night of April 19, he was having trouble breaking and had an irregular heartbeat, and so his family took him to the nearby city of Toluca, where the poor can get discounted care at a large public hospital.

By 8 a.m. the next day, he was dead. His family was told the cause was a heart attack brought on by pneumonia.

Four days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta announced that the flu killing people in Mexico matched a disturbing new virus detected in the U.S. that combines genetic material from humans, birds and pigs in a way scientists have never seen before - and that can be passed from human to human.

The news rocked Mexico's government, which had said for weeks that this year's higher flu caseload was nothing unusual. Mexico's government is ordering closed schools nationwide as the suspected death toll from swine flu climbed to 149.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova says only 20 of the deaths have been confirmed to be from swine flu and the government was awaiting tests results on the rest. He says 1,995 people have been hospitalized with serious cases of pneumonia since the first case of swine flu was reported on April 13. The government does not yet know how many were swine flu.

Of those hospitalized, 1,070 have been released.

As news spread about the dangerous new strain, two nurses from the local clinic visited the family's home last Thursday to say Leyva may not have died from pneumonia after all, and that an epidemiologist at the hospital wanted to see his widow.

She went in on Friday, but said the doctor did not tell her that her husband's death had been confirmed as swine flu. She said he gave her a hug of condolence and urged her to buy an antiflu drug and vitamin C if anyone in her family felt sick.

As of Sunday, she hadn't heard from any other health worker. The local pharmacy had no such drugs to sell, and she didn't have money to buy them anyway. Since her family seemed healthy, she left it at that.

Dr. Carlos Aranza, director of the Adolfo Lopez Mateos hospital where Leyva died, said state laboratory tests confirmed that swine flu killed him, as well as another patient there, a 42-year-old woman identified only as Gregoria.

Aranza also said that while the hospital had no antiflu medication to give the widow at the time, it now has Tamiflu in stock for those who need it.

Experts on epidemics suggest Mexican health officials should be more proactive in seeking out people who came into close contact with the victims, and in insisting they take antiviral drugs to prevent the spread of contagion.

"No matter whether the patients lived or died, their families should be offered prophylactic antibiotics," said Dr. Richard Wenzel, past president of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. "There would be an expectation that should happen anywhere in the world. And if they have trouble getting the drug they should ask for it."

Meanwhile, Cortes is struggling more than ever to make ends meet. Without her husband, her only income is from a plywood stand in front of her house where she sells candy and soda. She said sales are slow because her neighbors fear she might have swine flu and are staying away.

"I sleep on the same mattress under the same covers that my husband used. What contagion are they talking about?" she said. "I don't want anyone singling me out, as some already have, saying, 'The Leyva Corteces have the virus."'

Swine Flu News Worldwide:

[Elizabeth_Rose]

i think we need to realize that people are dieing, and who we blame is irrelevant, right now. Read this story- http://tinyurl.com/usaswineflu

[ibsteve2u]

You probably should change the headline, CBS. Texas (#!@!) had a fatality.

[toldyouso29]

he average Mexican citizen can leave their homeland and find work to earn money and send it back to their family, legally, whereas, the average USA citizen never faced such an extraordinary challenge.

The average Mexican citizen will help any foriegn citizen in Mexico who needs it and consider it a priveledge. The average USA citizen seems to consider foriegnors a bother.
Posted by pensacola8-2009 at 2:00 PM : Apr 27, 2009


how can they be doing it legally when they have to steal identities to get a driver's license or social security number? Face it--no matter how noble you try to paint an illegal, to make money in the states--most have to lie and steal and cheat.

Lie: about who they are and how they came to be here and if they belong here, and lie on the job app.

Steal: at the very least the id of a real American citizen, just to get a driver's license or SS card

Cheat--by jumping in the line for immigration--because rhe movement of the legitimate line depends on job availabilities as well as other factors, the line moves slower when needs are met by line jumpers wo somehow think their desperate need to be here trumps another person who may have been waiting dor years.

there is little honor or admiration for any of these traits.

[toldyouso29]

Don't laugh....there are more billionares in Mexico than in the U.S.
Do you know why?
Posted by netjunkie1 at 2:17 PM : Apr 27, 2009


The billionaires steal all the money and keep all the government aid sent from the US while they force the avg Mexican to exist on less than 1000.00 per year?

[toldyouso29]

Watch them kill off their pigs in fear...
The only reason its called swine flu is how similar our immune systems are...
Posted by inventagod at 1:22 PM : Apr 27, 2009


It is called swine flu because the primary strain of flu has pigs as its natural reservoir. That strain can on occasion combine with a human flu strain--but infection is usually limit6ed to those in close proximity to pigs. So a pig fu strain has jumped species--but this time, it combined with a human flu strain that already had combined with a bird species strain.

Many viruses are animal or species specific and seldom cross or can infect other species. Swine flu is called swine flu due to one of the dominant strains being a flu that usually affects mostly pigs--not humans and never birds. The key to this virus jumping species successfully was that both had already crossed with humans and so had common ground

[valh1]

Again with the Bush fetish, expatriate2!!!

[ohohoh1]

For all those irate because the source of swine flu was Mexico . . . .
Were you equally furious when AIDS entered Mexico from the U.S.?


Do we live in Mexico? We were pretty upset when it came here from Africa...

[cjs_cnet_xyz]

Schools have taught children for years that when Cortez landed in the new world that he brought european diseases with him. These diseases supposedly leveled indian populations. What if swine flu is originally a european derivation of earlier diseases. European ethnic groups would have already built up more immunities than ethnic indiginous people of Mexico. Thus, Mexico would have a higher fatality rate from a flu pandemic.

[govwatch2]

LOL


Its like trying to find out the source of moisture/condensation on your phone, while standing under niagara falls. Im sure the Mexican authorities have a tough time finding the germy disease ridden unsanitary no health codes vaccination free source of the virus because there are only a few places like that in that country. And by few places I mean the entire damn country. lol I dont see why they just dont shrug it off saying "hey it could be worse. were surprised we havent had bigger outbreaks sooner!" and just continue on living.


I Like how the media feeds into this nonsense just like when they did the whole SARS bit. My goshness! Where did this SARS come from?! Its so MYSTERIOUS! When the truth is like "hey jackoffs, they eat stray cats dipped in manure and sprinkled with dust for lunch then wash it down with factory runoff water in Guangdong province!!


Then of course they equate that country with ours saying that IT CAN HAPPEN HERE TOO. Its times like these we need to tag, mark, and track, all the morons that get up in arms over this kinda thing, media and populace. Stop eating raw pork and if youre that scared just eat beef or fish and quiet down. CDC will have a vaccine out soon. Cant turn on the TV without cursed news alerts about "how to protect your kids from Swine Flu." Of course the reaction to any such sentiment is "OH WELL YOURE NOT A PARENT YOU JUST DONT KNO!!!" Well gee thanks for the oblivious tip but does being a parent mean losing your rational mind? Shouldn't you need/use it MORE?! What is that fallacious argument?


And whats wrong with this generation too btw? 100 years ago THOUSANDS of kids got polio. before that, waves of diseases killed tens of thousands. 152 people die in some foreign land that have never heard of washing hands with soap before eating with fingers, and suddenly its a pandemic.


Nonsense. All of it. Besides look at the bright side. Pork chops, tenderloins, bellies and jowls all just got cheaper. When life gives us idiocy, grill up some pork!

[cdop]

This is not a Mexican virus. This virus starts at Virginia and North Carolina at Carroll farms. Your government ask them to leave because they were polluting the environment in the same way they are doing it in Mexico.
Carroll Farms are installed at La Gloria, Veracruz. They have killed a lot of local people with this virus.
Some locals ask to the municipal authorities to close the farm, but this people who ask for their rights are in jail now.
Carroll Farms are still operating at La Gloria.
You can read this article at this link or take a look at some last day articles at the new york times
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/04/12/index.php?section=estados&article=020n1est

[HamatoKameko]

American_11-2009, that's the second time I've reported your little hate speech. You don't have a clue what you're talking about, and you're coming out looking like a xenophobic fool. Give it a rest.

[jasonfm]

Whoever wrote that stupid wrath comment about the lord my savior needs to stop, because its the causing nothing but a well documented effect based on the scripture itself.
The book of Romans, and the scriptures effect on people and their personal freedoms.
Dont prophet something that isnt there, because question yourself, is it just a scare, or documented from the word of God.
We were not built to be prophets.
So do us true christians a favor, and stop trolling. ;)

[mattyje]

With the disease being upgraded to pandemic level 4 there is a real issue about how we manage the sense of panic, and the gap of information. Events will change and reveal the true extent in the next 48 hours.

There is also a dedicated community of doctors and patients that are being put together today in a UK health network called nhsUnlocked. The group has been formed as a result of the sudden outbreak and the appearance of Swine Flu in the UK. It's open so you can participate in the discussion and pool together knowledge on these issues. This is what the web is for (not to inflame panic!) - it's a non commercial website of UK docs and patients

The site is www.nhsunlocked.org - the group is at http://bit.ly/pxaXM

[badgirl5288]

I work for a local store called WaWA. It has many stores and a deli in each. Today all the managers at WaWa are returning from a trip to Mexico. I am worryed it will be spread by the Employees from different regions Philadelphia and New jersey spreading it to employees and customers...I tryed to report story so it can be know but couldnt find place to do it... im worryed

[omnibus66]

If this forces us to take border security seriously, that will be a good thing. If you had a large open wound on your body, you would would keep it clean and try to seal it. The Mexican border is a large open wound on the USA. It needs cleansing and sealing.

[longtree-2009]

mexico has a population of some 111 million so 142 deceased due to swine flu is not a pandemic, cause for concern, of course it is. closing the border will not help as people fly into mexico from other countries and then fly into the usa. swine flu is also reporteded in other nation states. airlines are flying into/out of mexico into other countries including here in the usa. there are also cruise ships, exports of products from mexico and other affected countries. we must all take precautions like we do during the normal flu season. to date, the usa has some 50 out of 300+ million population with swine flu. so far, most traveled into mexico for family vacations, spring break. it appears our own citizens brought the disease into the usa. even obama, and his entourage, was in mexico recently. closing the border won't help. taking flu season precautions will help us more than anything else.

[tbbaot]

Poor healthcare in Mexico, is the reason they have deaths

[fairie33]

From the posts that I have read we have gotten off subject from the actual story of the virus. To me what seems to be the greater concern is the fact that we have illegals in the U.S. And to that, I would have to say that most Mexicans are coming to the U.S. looking for a better life for their family. We, as Americans make it easy for them to find work when they are willing to work for less, as opposed to us who are striking because we're not receiving bonuses or more money when our economy is in a downfall. They realize that having a job is better than not having a job at all; which, if you watch the news, Americans do not comprehend. For example, we have workers from auto manufacters on strike because they aren''t being paid enough, but then a 2 weeks or a month later that company is filing bankrupt. Are those workers better off without a job? I don't think so. We have become too greety & there are people who are willing to work, usually for less than we are seeking. Who would you hire? As far as the "virus" we aren't really sure of where it started, like mrmrskevmel stated. With better resources we may have simply avoided identifying the problem untill now, when it has struck a country that is even more "poverty stricken" than our own. How can one really blame Mexicans for wanting to find a better life?

[cattiej]

As a retired nurse some of the otther disease's that are bright into oour contry is
active TB. Many of these peole have been testing had had active TB Test
I just know that tonight thousands will come across the border on the promise that they can free health care ..Make them pay...They could make their own vacinnes. There own governmrnt should be taking care of it's citizens...Mexico should take out the drug cartels. There appear to be too many corrupt politicans who want to cartels out of business. WHY is this????????

[cattiej]

We agree with everything that Dan 8951 wrote and them some. Illegals are stressing the hospital in 'Foley , Alabama and other parts of the south by the illegals going to ER. Hospitals, particularly Catholic hosptials hate to turn them away so when one person is just slighly sick, the whole family goes with them. They sit around like it's a party or something. This type of behavior is greatly disturbing to the other patients. I am a retired ememgency room nurse and there used to be only1 or 2 people allowed with the patient...now everybody piles in and no one at the hosptial can seem to stand them.
George Bush said he would build a fence and close the border, he didn't. He built a compound in Dallas but he never build a compound around our sothern states. All these drug dealers that bring their loads of crap across our borders should be meet on this side of the border by some Patriots with guns from this side of the border. If you are an American and using drugs STOP NOW If you want to kill yourself,,just use a gun it faster and it's cheaper. Otherwise, Wise UP, Grow Up, Real Men don't smoke Weed