| | |  Editorials | Issues | April 2009 
Critics Question Mexico's Reaction to Health Crisis
 Nacha Cattan - The News
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 |  | I came home to my children and they placed their face masks on their cheeks when I tried to kiss them.
- Alvaro García |  | | |
One day after a deadly flu epidemic put Mexico City at the center of an international public health scare, some residents complained that authorities were slow to react and others accused the government of causing senseless panic.
Residents reacted with fear and alarm to the news that Mexico City might be the epicenter of a global epidemic, but some wondered why the information did not flow sooner. With the first of 20 confirmed deaths occurring over a month ago it may be too late to contain the virus by canceling concerts and access to soccer games, critics said.
They saw measures to curb the outbreak as severe, saying the government was playing catch up for not having responded sooner.
"It's too late," said Yolanda Martínez Cruz, a homemaker from Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico, which has been included in suspensions of mass functions. "The government is resorting to extremes. If they had reacted sooner there wouldn't be any deaths."
With reports of swine flu in at least six Mexican and three U.S. states, some experts have said containment was impossible. All the government's measures are doing are causing panic, said Alvaro García, an administrative worker in the city government.
"I came home to my children and they placed their face masks on their cheeks when I tried to kiss them," García said.
On Saturday, Milenio's front page read: "There is medicine, there is a cure, there is psychosis."
ADVISORIES GO TOO FAR?
As late as Wednesday, health officials were playing down the outbreak and refusing to classify it as an epidemic, despite media reports of mounting deaths and infections. They abruptly switched direction Thursday night, acknowledging that there was an epidemic and closing schools and advising citizens to stay at home.
The authorities said they notified the public as soon as they could, when lab results of a new strain of swine flu were confirmed. They have also been responsible about informing residents that the situation is under control thanks to flu medicine and containment measures, said Carolina Pavón, a press officer at the city's Health Secretariat.
But a top official at the Health Secretariat's National Institute of Respiratory Diseases said the warnings against shaking hands or kissing cheeks went too far. "If I'm told I can get sick just by going outside or kissing someone I'll break into a panic," said Justino Regalado Pineda, who heads the institute's tobacco addiction department. He added that he was speaking as an epidemiologist and not as a government official.
"If it gets out of control the communication itself could cause bigger problems," said Regalado Pineda. He blamed the media for playing up the warnings rather than health officials who issued them.
José Luis Gutiérrez, mayor of the State of Mexico city of Ecatepec, also pointed fingers at the press, saying it is using the flu scare to boost sales.
`SOUND ADVICE'
People with the slightest cold symptoms have filled up hospitals, some doctors reported. "The people are scared," Dr. Roberto Ortiz at the Hospital Obregón told The Associated Press. "A person gets some flu symptoms or a child gets a fever and they think it is this swine flu and rush to the hospital."
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the city fielded 2,366 calls Friday from people who thought they had the virus, but only 10 had to be referred to hospitals.
Several residents expressed mistrust in the government version of events: "There might be many more people who died. Why else would they shut down theaters?" said Angélica Figueroa, a librarian.
Whether the warnings were too late or not, several residents in the D.F. welcomed them as necessary.
"They are not exaggerating," said Figueroa from Benito Juárez, who wore a painter's mask in the street. "It is sound advice not to be gathering in mass crowds." |
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