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* Tracy McVeigh and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
* guardian.co.uk, Saturday 25 April 2009 15.43 BST People wear surgical masks as they wait in a line at Mexico City's
general hospital
After a deadly outbreak of swine flu, people wearing surgical masks
queue for medical checks at Mexico City's general hospital. Photograph:
Dario Lopez-Mills/AP A killer virus that has caused at least 20 deaths and sparked widespread
panic in Mexico has the potential to become a global pandemic, warn
health experts. The World Health Organisation stopped short of issuing a worldwide alert
over the swine flu strain – a unique mix of human, pig and bird viruses
– but its director general, Dr Margaret Chan, said the option remained
"on the table". The virus, which may be responsible for a further 48 deaths in Mexico,
has thrown the country into confusion. There are a total of 1,004 cases
and eight have been detected over the border in Texas and California. Today, people in Mexico City were being ordered not to kiss or shake
hands, football matches went ahead without spectators, theatres, shops
and museums closed, staff were inside locked schools scrubbing
classrooms with disinfectant and health workers patrolled buses,
ordering sickly-looking people home. Scientists have long feared that a new flu virus could launch a
worldwide pandemic. Evolving when different flu viruses infect a pig, a
person or a bird, mingling their genetic material, the hybrid could
spread quickly because people would have no natural defences. "We are seeing a range of severity of the disease, from mild to severe
and of course death," said Chan. "The eight cases in the US have been
mild in terms of severity and it is too premature to calculate the
mortality rate of this disease." In New York the results of tests for swine flu on 75 children remain
unclear after a school trip returned from Mexico with pupils complaining
of illness. Mexico's health secretary Jose Angel Cordova said: "We are very, very
concerned." Any doubts over of the extent of the emergency were dispelled today by
the sight of soldiers handing out blue surgical masks to pedestrians and
motorists along Mexico City's central Reforma boulevard. With TV and
radio calling on the population to seek medical advice for any flu-like
symptoms, queues sprouted at health clinics and hospitals across the city. President Felipe Calderón said his government learned only on Thursday
night what kind of virus Mexico was facing after tests by specialist
laboratories in Canada confirmed the outbreak as a type – labelled
A/H1N1 – not previously seen in pigs or humans. Few cases have had any
contact with live pigs. The WHO said the virus appeared to be able to spread from human to human
and contained human virus, avian virus and pig viruses from North
America, Europe and Asia. It might be completely new or has only now
been detected. Given how quickly flu can spread, there might be cases incubating around
the world already, said Dr Michael Osterholm at the University of
Minnesota: "Hundreds and thousands of travellers come in and out [of
Mexico] every day. You'd have to believe there's been more unrecognised
transmission that's occurred." It was unclear how much protection current vaccines might offer. A "seed
stock" genetically matched to the new virus has already been created by
the US Centers for Disease Control. If the US government decides vaccine
production is necessary, it would be used by manufacturers to get started. At Mexico City's international airport, passengers were questioned to
try to prevent anyone with flu symptoms from boarding aeroplanes and
spreading the disease. Britain's Foreign Office issued a warning to
travellers about the outbreak but stopped short of recommending people
did not visit Mexico. US health officials did the same, urging visitors
to wash their hands frequently. In Asia, which has fought hard to contain the H5N1 bird flu virus, which
has killed at least 257 people worldwide since late 2003, tighter
enforcements were being made. Passengers and pork products from Mexico
were being checked at many airports. Health authorities in Thailand and
Hong Kong said they were closely monitoring the situation. At Tokyo's Narita airport – among the world's busiest with more than
96,000 people using it daily – officials installed a device at the
arrival gate for flights from Mexico to measure the temperatures of
passengers. 'We are increasing health surveillance following the outbreak of swine
flu,'' said Akira Yukitoki, an official at the Japanese airport's
quarantine station. He said 160 passengers arriving from Mexico
yesterday were screened. The airport also plans to put up signs urging tourists to "wear masks,
wash hands and gargle", Yukitoki said. In the Philippines, the government was also tightening monitoring at all
ports to prevent the entry of any pigs or pork from Mexico and the US. "We've seen swine influenza in humans over the past several years, and
in most cases, it's come from direct pig contact. This seems to be
different," said Dr Arnold Monto, a flu expert with the University of
Michigan. "I think we need to be careful and not apprehensive, but certainly
paying attention to new developments as they proceed." While the fear is palpable among Mexico City's 20 million residents,
confusion mixed with traditional mistrust of official statements means
widespread suspicion that the government is not telling the whole truth
about the disease. The government had claimed until late on Thursday
that there was nothing unusual about the flu cases and the sudden
turnaround that saw schools closed across the capital on Friday angered
many Mexicans. Government workers were ordered to wear masks, and authorities urged
residents to stay home from work if they felt ill. What seems almost
certain is that the doors of all nurseries, kindergartens, schools and
universities in the vast metropolis of 20 million people will remain
closed this week. With the authorities urging people to avoid crowds, the atmosphere
inside the metro and crowded buses is notably tense. Health secretary
Cordova, a devout Catholic, stopped short of urging Mexicans not to go
to mass tomorrow, but he did emphasise that a nod of the head was better
than a handshake when it came to greeting friends.
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