by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 27, 2009
All Rights Reserved.

        Mexican authorities announced the outbreak of swine flu has resulted in at least 149 deaths, stirring panic and causing government officials to shut down transportation, including the Mexico City Metro.  Mexico City health officials indicate the flu virus jumped quickly from human-to-human, prompting the World Health Organization to call a pandemic alert.  Health authorities at the U.N. and elsewhere recall their history, hoping the swine flu won’t morph into the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that claimed between 20 and 50 million victims, more than double the deaths from WW I   Spreading to six countries, including the U.S., the WHO called a Stage 4 Alert, signaling that epidemiologists believe rapid human-to-human transmission could spread quickly around the globe.  Mexico’s Health Secretary Angel Cordova suspended public schools and public transportation in Mexico City.

            Mexican authorities are trying to contain a growing health crisis, threatening to spread domestically and globally.  “We are at the most critical moment of the epidemic.  The number of cases will keep rising so we have to reinforce preventive measures,” said Cordova at a press conference, shaken by a mild earthquake in Mexico City.  Rapid human-to-human transmission jumping to six countries prompted WHO to call a Phase 4 alert, notifying the global health system that a pandemic was possible, not likely or inevitable.  While Cordova identified in Mexico’s statistic-driven nationalized health system 1,985 cases of pneumonia by mid-April, he could not say with certainty whether the illnesses were due to flu.  More than half of those pneumonia cases were already released from government hospitals.  Cordova traced the first outbreak to April 13 in southern Oaxacan state.

           Virulent flu viruses cause “cytokine storms,” paralyzing the immune system, causing pneumonia and other organ failure, especially in the young and elderly.  Such was the case in the historic 1918 epidemic that killed approximately one-third on the European population.  Better detection and improved overall health care have prevented a repetition of the 1918 event.  Mexican authorities suspect Granjas Carroll de Mexico pig farm, a 50% joint venture with Virginia-based Smithfield Foods for originating the recent swine flu outbreak.  Company spokeswoman Keira Ultrich said they found no evidence of swine flu contamination among animals or humans working at the farm.  They did admit to an outbreak in early-April of severe respiratory infections.  Cordova admitted that the community suffered from ordinary influenza but denied any outbreak of swine flu.

            Powerful financial interests sometimes suppress information about disease outbreaks, fearing a boycott of various agriculture products.  When mad cow disease [bovine spongiform encephalopathy] hit the U.K 1980s, it decimated the beef industry, forcing ranchers to dispose of over 179,000 heads of cattle, causing incalculable losses to the cattle business.  British agriculture authorities determined that is was caused by meat and bone meal [MBM], a contaminated nutritional food source feed to otherwise grass-eating cattle.  No one knows yet whether hog-feed caused the latest outbreak of swine flu.  Local authorities also don’t want a comparable scare to wreck the Mexican pig industry.  U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Juan Lubrotrh heads to Mexico to get a better read on the origin of the swine flu and help the Mexican officials plot an effective containment strategy.

              Mexico, like most Latin American countries, is reeling from the global recession affecting tourism and agricultural exports.  Lubroth warned that panic surrounding the ostensible swine flu outbreak could have devastating consequences to Mexico’s already shaky economy.  Mexican authorities still haven’t identified the origin of the swine flu, nor have they rolled out a coherent containment program.  While Mexico DF [Distrito Federales] officials suspended school in five of the 32 states, they’ve done little other than tell people to stay home to halt the outbreak.  Mexico’s Tourism Office has witnessed cancellations of flights, cruises and hotel reservations from Tijuana to Mexico City.  Already reeling from widely publicized “drug wars,” Mexico’s economy can ill-afford another blow.  Panic has spread to Mexican health care workers, reportedly refusing treatment to patients with flu-like symptoms.

            So far, cases of Swine flu in Europe and the U.S. have been no different in severity than other common flu viruses.  President Barack Obama urged fellow citizens to not panic, reporting no fatalities from the 40 or so cases reported in the U.S.  White House officials should do more to contain not the flu but the mass hysteria currently in the mass media, providing 24/7, nonstop coverage.  While calling it a “cause for concern,” Obama urged people to keep a level head.  Center for Disease Control and Prevention officials and their European Union counterparts don’t help matters by raising code alerts and warning citizens against traveling overseas.  When the SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] epidemic hit Hong Kong in 2003, the same panic ensued.  With so few cases of swine flu reported worldwide, it’s irresponsible to hype the story and sow unnecessary panic.

 About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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