http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10569170&pnum=0
Alarming tale emerging of chaotic response
4:00AM Wednesday Apr 29, 2009
MEXICO CITY- Two weeks after the first known swine flu death, Mexico still hasn't given
medicine to all the families of the dead.
It hasn't determined what caused the outbreak, where specifically it began or how it
spread.
It remains unclear who the epidemic has killed or how fast it is growing.
And while the Government urges anyone who feels sick to go to hospitals, feverish people
complain ambulance workers are scared to pick them up.
A portrait is emerging of a slow and confused response by Mexico to the gathering swine
flu epidemic. And that could mean the world is flying blind into a global health storm.
Despite an annual budget of more than US$5 billion ($9 billion), Mexico's Health Secretary
said yesterday that his agency hasn't had the resources to visit the families of the dead.
That means doctors haven't begun treatment for the population most exposed to swine flu,
and most apt to spread it.
It also means medical sleuths don't know how the victims were infected - key to
understanding how the epidemic began and how it can be contained.
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.
Dr Antonio Chavez, a specialist in respiratory diseases at the Mexico National Institute
of Health, said there was panic as medical staff in Mexico City struggled to deal with the
problem. Another doctor claimed that in the early stages, staff were asked not to place
the cause of death on death certificates. Writing on BBC Online, Chavez said many medical
staff were scared of catching the virus: "The infection risk is very high among the
doctors and health
staff. There is a sense of chaos in the other hospitals and we do not know what to do ...
The truth is that mortality is even higher than what is being reported by the authorities,
at least in the hospital where I work. It is killing three to four patients daily, and it
has been going on for more than three weeks."
Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said yesterday that he couldn't provide information on
the victims for reasons of confidentiality, but promised to eventually release a
statistical breakdown. He couldn't provide that data now "because it's being processed".
Asked whether he could at least say how many of the 20 confirmed victims were men and how
many were women, he said: "I don't have that information."
The Government has insisted it acted quickly and decisively when presented with the
evidence of a new virus. But even as it did so, it acknowledged the outbreak began earlier
than April 12, the date it had previously linked to the first case. Cordova confirmed
yesterday that a 4-year-old boy who was part of an outbreak in eastern Veracruz state that
began in February had swine flu. He later recovered.
Residents of the town of Perote said at the time that they had a new, aggressive bug -
even taking to the streets to demonstrate against the pig farm they blamed for their
illness - but were told they were suffering from a typical flu. It was only after United
States labs confirmed a swine flu outbreak that Mexican officials sent the boy's sample in
for swine flu testing.
Mexico's Agriculture Department said yesterday that inspectors found no sign of swine flu
among pigs around the farm in Veracruz, and that no infected pigs have been found yet
anywhere in Mexico.
Yesterday, some people complained that health workers were turning them away, even as
officials urged people to seek treatment quickly if they felt symptoms of flu coming on.
Elias Camacho, a 31-year-old truck driver with fever, cough and body aches, was ordered
out of a government ambulance on Monday because paramedics complained he might be
contagious, his father-in-law told AP. When family members took him to a hospital in a
taxi, Jorge Martinez Cruz said, a doctor told him he wasn't sick.
Camacho was finally admitted to the hospital - and placed in an area marked "restricted" -
after a doctor at a private clinic notified state health authorities, Martinez said.
In Mexico City, Jose Isaac Cepeda said two hospitals refused to treat his fever, diarrheoa
and joint pains.
The first turned him away because he wasn't registered in the public health system, he
said. The second, he said, didn't let him in "because they say they're too busy."
WHAT MEXICO IS DOING
FAMILIES
Health officials were yesterday trying to follow up families of swine flu victims. The
Government has been criticised for failing to quarantine close family members who could
catch the disease or pass it on. President Felipe Calderon has announced an emergency
decree authorising health workers to isolate patients. The Institute of Social Security
began a campaign yesterday calling on families of people who have caught the disease to
present themselves to doctors.
SCHOOLS
Mexican authorities yesterday shut schools across the country. Schools in Mexico City were
already closed.
PUBLIC SAFETY
In Mexico City surgical masks are being given to the public, venues are closed and public
events have been cancelled. Zoos, museums and churches are closed.
BUSINESSES
The capital's courts and many restaurants are already closed. Mexico City is now aiming to
shut down businesses and is holding talks with business leaders.
GLOBAL AID
The World Bank is loaning Mexico more than US$200 million ($361 million). British
pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline said it provided 100,000 packs of an anti-viral drug
to Mexican authorities.
- TELEGRAPH, AFP, AP
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Wretched lying spics. Land mine the border.
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