[DEBATE] : (Fwd) More on Nafta flu

[Doug Henwood]

On May 4, 2009, at 8:24 AM, Patrick Bond wrote:

> Blame NAFTA for swine flu, experts say

Nice story, except that it may not be true.

Doug

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Financial Times - May 2, 2009
<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/721e2356-36b2-11de-af40-00144feabdc0.html>

Swine flu ground zero yields no clues
By Adam Thomson

Until a month ago, the village of La Gloria in the cactus-filled hills  
of Mexico's Sierra Madre, was like any other neglected community: life  
was quiet, even tedious, and the biggest concern was how the harsh  
climate would affect the bean harvest.

But since Monday, when Mexico's health minister told the world that  
the community of 3,000 was home to the earliest known case of swine  
flu, things have taken a startling turn. Days are now filled with  
visits by politicians, health officials and international camera  
crews. This week, even the state beauty queen rolled into town to hand  
out presents for the children.

As the virus sweeps the globe - the World Health Organisation said  
yesterday that the number of confirmed cases had risen from 257 to 331  
affecting 11 countries - La Gloria is acquiring renown as swine flu's  
"ground zero".

In late March, residents began to complain of flu-like symptoms -  
headache, coughing, fever and even diarrhoea and vomiting. "It was  
terrible," says farmer Enrique Reyes. "Everyone was getting sick. It  
felt like the plague."

Edgar Hernández, aged five, became the first Mexican to test positive  
for the A/H1N1 virus when samples were sent to the US and Can-ada last  
month, yet he re-mains the only villager to have tested positive. Many  
of La Gloria's residents say that local pig farms are to blame for the  
virus's mysterious appearance. Granjas Carroll, a breeder 50 per cent- 
owned by US-based Smithfield, has 77 pig-breeding and rearing units in  
the region that produce about 1m animals a year, or 10 per cent of  
Mexico's pork consumption.

Residents complain the plant produces a persistent stench and fly  
infestation. "The sickness is in the air. We breathe it every day,"  
says one resident. But agricultural in-spec-tion officials say there  
is no swine flu virus among these pigs.

Farm number 11-38, five miles from La Gloria and the nearest pig- 
rearing unit to the village, looks like a well-maintained prison.  
About 16,000 pigs live in nine barns bounded by wire fencing.

All of them are healthy and have been subjected to a rigorous  
programme of vaccination, says Roxana Mendoza, Granjas Carroll's head  
veterinary surgeon. A visiting inspector from the agriculture ministry  
told the Financial Times: "We're happy with what we've seen."

So how did Edgar, who is now fully recovered and busy wrestling with  
his younger brother, contract the virus? Some of La Gloria's residents  
say the community has a high rate of migration, which could have  
brought the virus from elsewhere.

But Maria del Carmen Hernández, Edgar's mother, says none of the  
family left the village in the days before her son's illness, and that  
no one from outsidecame to visit.

"We were just here," she insists. "I don't know where the virus came  
from, and I don't think anyone else does, either."