Eideard

Édgar Hernández can rattle off the fierce flu symptoms he suffered a few weeks back, like a boy far beyond his five years: His head was hot. He coughed until his belly and his throat were sore. He did not want to eat, which was strange for him, someone who gobbles up everything he can.

“I was very bad,” he said Tuesday, with his worried parents looking on. “I feel good now,” he said later, flashing a smile.

The government has identified Édgar as the first person in Mexico to have become infected with a virulent strain of swine flu, a notoriety that could raise questions about how Mexican officials reacted — or failed to react — to the early stages of what might become a global epidemic.

Édgar was one of hundreds of people in La Gloria who came down with flulike symptoms in an outbreak that federal officials say began March 9. Local residents accuse public health officials of discounting the outbreak at the time, reassuring them that it was nothing grave…

In La Gloria, a town that has a major pig farming industry, two children died of the flu in March and early April, though the authorities said they had yet to determine whether it was the same strain that infected Édgar and spread widely to other locales. That and other questions have left residents here unnerved and confused.

Here is a special report on pig farming in La Gloria. It ain’t some local truck farmer cranking out a couple hundred porkers every year. It’s a factory farm owned by Joseph Luter III, the Pig Baron of the world, the man who owns Smithfield – a corporation that has been busted in the United States and Europe for corrupting environments where he builds his pig warehouses.

Each knock on the door brings a surprise to the Hernándezes: fumigators who sprayed her home but did not tell her for what; scientists who asked to take a swab of Édgar’s throat; even the governor of Veracruz, who arrived by helicopter on Monday with an entourage in tow and left Édgar with a soccer ball and a baseball cap.

On Monday, the local physician who treated Mrs. Hernández told her that her son had influenza, but that it was not the swine flu virus, she said. But a few hours before, Gov. Fidel Herrera Beltrán walked right into her home to check on Édgar. He had said publicly over the weekend that Édgar had tested positive for swine flu, and Health Secretary José Ángel Córdova had confirmed on Monday that a boy from La Gloria, whom he refused to identify, had tested positive and then recovered.

“Shouldn’t they tell the mother first?” Mrs. Hernández asked as her younger son, Jonathan, 3, let out a cough of his own…

Smithfield’s PR pimps are cranking out all the predictable excuses. The fact remains that his pork factories degrade the environment, produce conditions where diseases like swine flu start – and spread.

Swine flu? Not in the Jewish state.

“We will call it Mexico flu. We won’t call it swine flu,” Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman, a black-garbed Orthodox Jew, told a news conference Monday, assuring the Israeli public that authorities were prepared to handle any cases.

Under Jewish dietary laws, pigs are considered unclean and pork is forbidden food — although the non-kosher meat is available in some stores in Israel.

One [Bronx] cheer for theocracy!

Mexican soldiers delivering masks for public distribution
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Countries planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers as global health officials tried Sunday to come up with uniform ways to battle a deadly strain of swine flu. Nations from New Zealand to France reported new suspected cases.

World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan held teleconferences with staff and flu experts around the world but stopped short of recommending specific measures to stop the disease, urging governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.

Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine…

Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico.

Chan called the outbreak a public health emergency of ”pandemic potential” because the virus can pass from human to human. Her agency was considering whether to issue nonbinding recommendations on travel and trade restrictions, and even border closures. It is up to governments to decide whether to follow the advice…

New Zealand said that 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico ”likely” had swine flu. Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalized while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease. French Health Ministry officials said four possible cases of swine flu are currently under investigation, including a family of three in the northern Nord region and a woman in the Paris region. The four recently returned from Mexico. Tests on two separate cases of suspected swine flu proved negative, they said…

Mexico closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in a bid to contain the outbreak after hundreds were sickened there. In the U.S., there have been at least 11 confirmed cases of swine flu in California, Texas and Kansas. Patients have ranged in age from 9 to over 50. At least two were hospitalized. All recovered or are recovering.

The WHO’s pandemic alert level is currently at to phase 3. I’m betting on phase 4 within the week. Phase 5 is what we get when the virus is confirmed in at least two countries in the same region.

Phase 6 would indicate a full-scale global pandemic. Which no one wants to see or experience.