| | |  Editorials | Issues | April 2009 
Mexico Clamps Down Harder on Flu Outbreak
 Sophie Nicholson - Agence France-Presse
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| | A couple wearing surgical masks sit on a bench at an empty park in Mexico City. (AFP/Omar Torres) | |
Mexico City – Mexico faces a "critical moment" in its handling of a deadly swine flu outbreak, the capital's mayor said Tuesday, as he ordered all eateries in the city closed to combat the virus's spread.
"We're in the critical moment, in that we have to manage as a city so it does not become an exponential infection," Marcelo Ebrard told journalists after the likely national death toll hit 152.
Authorities around the world are increasingly alarmed as the number rises of people confirmed or suspected to be infected.
The World Health Organization on Monday raised its alert level to a four on a six-scale system, amid fears the world may be facing the flu pandemic that health officials have been warning about for years.
International airports everywhere are on the lookout for passengers with possible flu symptoms.
Mexico City authorities announced they were also temporarily shutting gyms and sports clubs, adding to zoos, museums, churches and courts already closed.
All eateries in the city were prohibited from serving sit-down customers, and were permitted only to serve take-away meals.
Schools were closed Tuesday across the country, following a shutdown in the capital last Friday after news of the scale and seriousness of the virus broke.
Three people have died from suspected swine flu in the Mexican capital since the weekend, the local health minister said Tuesday.
It was unclear, however, if those deaths were included in the latest probable national toll of 152.
Officials have confirmed 20 deaths from the disease, while the number of cases under observation in Mexico has reached 1,614.
Amid global warnings about travel to Mexico -- a major tourist destination -- some officials here suggested the epidemic might be abating.
Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said Monday the number of suspected flu deaths had gone from six on Saturday to five on Sunday and to three on Monday.
Ebrard also said the number of cases examined in the capital fell slightly in the past few days, starting at 127 on Thursday, then more than doubling, before dropping to 320 on Monday.
"The big risk was that the figure would keep doubling daily as it was," Ebrard said.
"The measures people are taking are starting to show," Ebrard said.
Faster and more effective laboratory tests for the flu were to begin Tuesday, Cordova said.
Despite measures to contain the virus and increasing warnings those outside the country should avoid non-essential travel to Mexico, Cordova later insisted that Mexico could maintain business and tourist relations with the rest of the world.
Many feared for an economy already hit hard by the crisis and suffering from the flu outbreak.
The Mexican stock exchange opened with a 1.24 percent loss Tuesday, after closing down 3.34 percent on Monday.
The World Health Organization has warned the new strain of flu, apparently created from a mix of human and avian flu viruses in infected pigs, could further mutate.
Scientists are stumped as to why the only fatalities from the flu so far have been reported in Mexico.
After Mexico, the United States has so far recorded the highest number of cases, with at least 64 confirmed, non-fatal, swine flu patients in five states.
Other countries with confirmed cases are Britain, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and Spain, while several European and Asian countries are examining suspected cases.
The Mexican government agreed to regular meetings with the US and Canadian officials to try to contain the virus, Cordova said late Monday. |
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