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Mexico Grapples With Flu as Pandemic Fears Fly

By Caroline Miller,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 25, 2009 7:13 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Schools and museums are closed, sold-out soccer games are being played in empty stadiums, and health workers are ordering sickly passengers off subways and buses. At nightclubs, teenagers are dancing with surgical masks on. Mexico City is grappling with what authorities fear is ground zero for a global epidemic of a new kind of flu—a strange mix of human, pig, and bird viruses that appears to have killed 68 people and has sickened more than 1,000.

The same virus also sickened at least eight people in Texas and California, though there have been no deaths north of the border, AP reports. Health officials are testing 75 students who came down with flu-like symptoms in a New York City high school. Scientists have warned for years about the potential for a pandemic from viruses that mix genetic material from humans and animals. This outbreak is particularly worrisome because deaths have happened in at least four different regions of Mexico, and because the victims have not been vulnerable infants and elderly.

Mexican Army soldiers hand out surgical masks to people in cars at an intersection in Mexico City, Friday April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic. (AP Photo/
Mexican Army soldiers hand out surgical masks to people in cars at an intersection in Mexico City, Friday April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico,...   (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
People, wearing surgical masks, make their way in Mexico City, Friday, April 24, 2009.
People, wearing surgical masks, make their way in Mexico City, Friday, April 24, 2009.   (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)
An organ grinder, wearing surgical masks as a precaution against infection, asks for money in downtown Mexico City, Friday April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic.
An organ grinder, wearing surgical masks as a precaution against infection, asks for money in downtown Mexico City, Friday April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine...   (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
A police officer, wearing a surgical mask as a precaution against infection, directs traffic in downtown Mexico City, Friday April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic.
A police officer, wearing a surgical mask as a precaution against infection, directs traffic in downtown Mexico City, Friday April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine...   (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
A Mexican Army soldier hands out surgical masks to people in cars at an intersection in Mexico City, Friday April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic.
A Mexican Army soldier hands out surgical masks to people in cars at an intersection in Mexico City, Friday April 24, 2009. Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico,...   (AP Photo/Guillermo Gutierrez)
A man, wearing a surgical mask ,passes a mural in Mexico City, Mexico, Friday, April 24, 2009. Mexico closed its schools across its capital after at least 16 otherwise healthy people died and more than 900 others fell ill from what could be a new strain of swine flu.
A man, wearing a surgical mask ,passes a mural in Mexico City, Mexico, Friday, April 24, 2009. Mexico closed its schools across its capital after at least 16 otherwise healthy people died and more than...   (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
People wear surgical masks as a precaution against infection inside a subway in Mexico City, Friday, April 24, 2009.
People wear surgical masks as a precaution against infection inside a subway in Mexico City, Friday, April 24, 2009.   (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
A quarantine officer monitors travelers from Mexico City with a thermographic device at an arrival gate at Narita International Airport in Narita, Japan, Saturday, April 25, 2009. The device measures the temperatures of passengers. Some Asian nations enforced checks Saturday on passengers and pork products from Mexico amid fears that...
A quarantine officer monitors travelers from Mexico City with a thermographic device at an arrival gate at Narita International Airport in Narita, Japan, Saturday, April 25, 2009. The device measures...   (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
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Mexico City • Mexico • epidemic • flu • pandemic • swine flu

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