Swine Flu in Mexico

As everyone surely knows, Mexico seems to be the epicenter of the infamous swine flu outbreak.  Since family and friends have expressed concern, I thought it would be good to explain what the situation is for us now and what precaustions are being taken here.  

First of all, the vast majority  of cases have been in Mexico City, which is about 8 hours from us by car.  The thinking here is that a large number of people were initially infected before the authorities knew what was going on, so the outbreak had a chance to take hold.  Further, many Mexican people are poor and are not as well nourished as they could be which may have compromised their imune systems.  Many people do not have any kind of health coverage, so they waited until theri symptoms were quite severe before seeing medical attention and had advanced pneumonia when they showed up at the hospital.   So the large number of deaths, relative to the US for example, is still under investigation but these are some theories.  

Our situation in the State of Jalisco is quite different.  President Calderon, in order to do eveything possible has ordered widespread closings to prevent large gatherings in public.  Here at Lakeside, all restaurants are closed, open for take-out only.  Schools are closed.  Many non-essential businesses are closed, along with churches.  Many public events have been cancelled.  All this in spite of the fact that no cases of the swine flu have been confirmed in Jalisco here.  We have all been advised to stay home and wait for the threat to pass, which most of us are content to do.  We just have to wait and see how the situaton develops.  

Mexico, as a poor country is not like the US and has limited supplies of anti-viral drugs and face masks available.  The government is relying, as far as I can see, on trying hard to control the spread of the virus.  Most people seem to support the government, although in Mexico there is always a residual mistrust of the federal government.  Hopefully, this will begin to fizzle out and life can return to something approximating normalcy.  

I promised in the last blog entry to show photos of the completed tile work on our fireplace and coffee table we had done last week.   Here are some photos: 

Finally, I had my last English class last night.  We had a party instead of a regular class. Pixie has been helping me in class, and has decided to teach a class herself next fall.  Only four students showed up for the pizza party, and Pixie snapped this photo of me with these students: