Mexico Holds Swine Flu Forum To Learn Exactly How Much They Didn’t Do To Combat The Virus

Cancuuuuun! Wooooo! …is the setting for a two-day forum on swine flu beginning today. Fifty countries are meeting to determine what they can learn from the response to the recent, and ongoing, spread of the H1N1 virus.

Although it has been two months since the virus first broke and is no longer making daily headlines in American news, it has only just claimed its first Paraguayan fatality and Argentina has recently declared a public health emergency due to the spread of the illness in that country - there, students have been sent home from school and pregnant women have been advised to remain at home. 

Many of the participating countries are concerned that a strong and effective vaccine for this particular strain of the flu has yet to be developed. 

Mexico has been closely linked with coverage of the flu as the virus is thought to have first broken out in La Gloria, Mexico. Since then, there has been ongoing controversy regarding using the flu outbreak as a springboard for xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric. And, within Mexico itself, many expressed dissatisfaction and anger at what they perceived to be the government’s delay in announcing the dangers associated with the flu or ensuring that people were properly treated. 

So we’re glad Mexico has taken it upon itself to host this forum and take steps towards ensuring that, if something similar were to break out, people can be properly and efficiently informed and protected. Plus, it’s way more effective than simply noshing chicharrones. 

Mexico hosts key swine flu forum [BBC]