Mexican Wave 2.0?

Now that the first wave of fajita flu has turned out to be a bit of a damp squib they are prepping us for a bit of a late summer panic when a second wave might — just might — take hold.

Still no confirmed cases here in Guatemala, but 18 suspected ones have been thrown out. Anyway, it's harder to spook people in a land where nearly 20 people die each day from the violence virus.

Up in Mexico they've had to admit that many of the people they thought had died from influenza porcina did in fact expire as a result of something completely different. Meanwhile they've waved goodbye to their economy.

A better reason to be scared turned up in Guatemala this weekend...an earthquake registering 6.1 on the Richter scale. It was certainly the strongest of the year so far and perhaps the most powerful I have experienced whilst sitting at my desk up in the studio. (3rd Floor)

We both felt a little seasick afterwards. Nothing fell off the shelves though and the quake was obviously not significant enough to make it onto CNN, the BBC or even the front page of today's El Periódico.

The Daily Mail is of course way too busy trying to generate panic amongst its high-minded readership, though unlike its conservative counterparts in the US, has yet to find a way to clearly link the deadly plague of microbes with that of migrant workers.

Masquerade

The Guardian has a fine selection of customised fajita flu face masks. 

The Fajita Flu!

Swine Flu

Around 36,000 people die each year in the USA from flu-related causes, averaging about 3000 a month.

Mexico has a population of 109m, roughly a third of that of the States, so you might expect normal flu mortality rates there in the region of 1000 pcm. (Though of course a greater proportion of the gringo population has easier access to basic medicine.)

So the 200 or so fatalities from swine flu since March look a bit insignificant...especially when you consider that most of these deaths resulted from pneumonia, a bacterial complication following the original viral infection (and that roughly five times that number of Mexicans will have died as a result of so-called ordinary flu in the same period.)

Many of these deaths could also have been avoided if the patients had presented earlier at their local clinic.

Conclusion - it's all bollocks.

[Though it's still kind of handy that most of our northern frontier is covered in dense jungle!]

Quote of the Day

"The good news is, this disease is curable."

Mexican Presidente Felipe Calderón in his public address last night.

Meanwhile two Mexican doctors writing a diary for the BBC News website commented on Monday that their "government says that it has antiviral drugs available to treat a million cases but we do not have easy access to these, even though we are part of the health sector." 

Quote of the Day

“I am crossing my fingers ... It could be a positive impact for Telmex.”
Adolfo Cerezo, CFO Telmex

...hoping that concerned relatives phoning home will drive up profits. Rather depends on the people at the other end of the line not being dead!

[I might have to start a couple of new series this week - Flumourmonger of the Day or indeed Ambulance Chaser of the Day.]

Flumours

Pontiac is dead. And so will we all be quite shortly if the flumours are to be believed.

I had a girlfriend with a Pontiac (Firebird) when I was 17. The windows couldn't be rolled down so getting in and out was all very Dukes of Hazard.

In Guatemala City, a hospital director has just told local radio that a 29-year old who had recently been to Mexico has symptoms similar to those reported in swine flu cases up there. Up until now the Guatemalan media weren't particularly interested in the gathering doom up north in the land of their unloved neighbour.

V and I are a few years the wrong side of the fatal age-range; for once it may be advantageous to be a bit over the colina. (And to be living the troglodyte lifestyle.)

But will the UK welcome me back next month...and perhaps more pertinently, will I want to share a Jumbo with a bunch of spluttering sickies?

Anyway, dumbass panics such as these provide a feast of opportuities for buitre-like, bad news investors such as myself. Take Continental Airlines. Down 16% at the start of today's trading, but recovering nicely already. Did the stock take its Tamiflu as soon as symptoms developed?

Has anyone considered the altitude and air quality of Mexico DF as complicating factors?

Golf won't save you...

Get a shot...or shoot that chihuahua.