Millions of kids begin returning to Mexico schools

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By ANDREW O. SELSKY, Associated Press Writer Andrew O. Selsky, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 17 mins ago

SAN MIGUEL TOPILEJO, Mexico – As if marshaling for war, Mexico's government mobilized thousands of education officials and parents across the country to swiftly disinfect schools and monitor millions of returning students for signs of swine flu.

High schools and universities open Thursday after a two-week closure intended to curb the spread of the virus. Younger children were ordered back to class on Monday.

Secretary of Public Education Alonso Lujambio called on Mexicans to show "strength of spirit," trying to assuage worries that it's too early to reopen schools after the flu outbreak that killed 42 people in Mexico and sickened more than 1,100.

Parents expressed relief that their children, shuttered too long in homes, could return to class. But they also worried that the virus could surge back once 40 million young people gather in groups again.

"My 17-year-old daughter is afraid. She knows she must go back but doesn't want to," said Silvia Mendez as she led her 4-year-old son, Enrique, down a narrow street in San Miguel Topilejo, a town perched in forested mountains near the capital.

Mendez and her son wore masks as they walked to the tiny roasted chicken restaurant she owns. Enrique spoke adoringly of his teacher and seemed impatient to get back to kindergarten.

Working parents have struggled to provide child care during the shutdown. It forced many to stay home from work, bring their youngsters to their jobs, or leave them at home.

Isabel Garcia had to leave her 11-year-old son, Charlie, behind while she sold vegetables below a red-domed church in San Miguel Topilejo's central plaza.

"I'm nervous about him going back to school on Monday. But he will wear a mask and I have instructed him to stay away from any children who appear sick," Garcia said as customers squeezed past her stall, a colorful tableau of radishes, carrots, green onions and other fresh produce.

This swine flu seems to have a long incubation period — five to seven days before people notice symptoms, according to Dr. Marc-Alain Widdowson, a medical epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now tracking the flu in Mexico City. And that means the virus can keep being spread by people who won't know to stay home.

Government-mandated "filter" teams, composed of parent volunteers and school officials, will check the returning students for any respiratory ailments.

"If the least suspicion exists, the boy or girl can't remain and the Health Department will be notified," Cecilia Landerreche Gomez Morin, director-general of Mexico's Family Welfare Agency, announced Wednesday.

The government also created an online manual, "What to do to restart classes without risk?"

It calls for parents and school employees to clean classrooms, cafeterias and other areas with water, soap and chlorine, and to provide running water for hand-washing.

Each school, Mexican officials said, must be cleaned and inspected this week. Complicating the task: Many schools are primitive buildings with dirt floors and lack proper bathrooms. It was unclear how students attending those schools, especially in outlying regions of the country, could adhere to the government's strict sanitary conditions.

The government promised detergent, chlorine, trash bags, anti-bacterial soap or antiseptic gel and face masks to state governments for delivery to public schools. But some local districts apparently didn't get the word.

Guillermo Narro Garza, acting secretary of education for Ciudad Juarez, along the border with Texas, said only chlorine would be used — and that parents have to supply it.

"We're trying to follow what's happening through newspapers and radio," said an administrator of a school in San Miguel Topilejo.

Mexico's public education department said students must complete the yearly requirement of 800 hours in class, but did not say if the term would be extended because of the shutdown.

U.S. health officials are no longer recommending that schools close because of suspected swine flu cases since the virus has turned out to be milder than initially feared. But many U.S. schools have done so anyway, including the school of the Texas teacher who just died.

In a tentative first step toward normalcy, Mexicans returned to work Wednesday after a five-day shutdown which the government said reduced the spread of the virus.

The capital's health secretary announced later that all places of business — including sports arenas, dance halls, movie theaters and restaurants — will be allowed to operate Thursday.

But establishments must follow government-ordered hygiene rules including screening for any sick people and making surgical masks mandatory for employees and customers alike.

Deaths have slowed as the country mobilized an aggressive public health response to the epidemic that has sickened thousands in 24 countries. Sweden and Poland were the latest countries to confirm swine flu cases, both in women who had recently visited the U.S.

The fear of contagion was so great that even impoverished Haiti refused to accept a Mexican navy ship carrying 77 tons of rice, fertilizer and emergency food kits, said Mexico's ambassador, Zadalinda Gonzalez y Reynero.

In San Diego, Calif., the U.S. Navy canceled the deployment of the USS Dubuque, an amphibious transport ship, after a crew member was confirmed to have swine flu. About 50 others were suspected cases, and all crew members were being treated with antiviral drugs.

In Washington, CDC officials said they identified genetic characteristics of the virus and were in position to produce a vaccine if one is needed. Dr. Dennis Carroll, a special adviser on pandemics with the U.S. Agency for International Development, said investments to stave off an avian flu epidemic aided the quick swine flu response.

Canada, meanwhile, said researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, genetically sequenced three samples of the virus from Mexico and Canada, a breakthrough they hope will answer questions about how it spreads and mutates.

___

Associated Press writer Marina Montemayor in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090507/ap_on_he_me/med_swine_flu

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Mexico's schools cleaned, ready to resume classes
By KENT KILPATRICK and JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, Associated Press Writers Kent Kilpatrick And Juan Carlos Llorca, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 22 mins ago

MEXICO CITY – Scoured and disinfected, most of Mexico's primary schools and kindergartens stood ready to welcome back millions of students Monday after a nationwide shutdown ordered to help put a brake on the spread of swine flu.

Children who turned up with symptoms of the illness would be turned away, education officials said.

But it wasn't the countrywide restart that leaders had hoped for. Six of Mexico's 31 states put off reopening schools for another week amid a rise in suspected flu cases in some regions, and a seventh ordered a one-day delay. Some parents were worried about sending their children back so soon.

While Mexicans are feeling a little more relaxed, the swine flu outbreak is continuing to spread around the globe, with international health authorities reporting more than 4,500 confirmed cases in 29 nations. There are 53 deaths tied to the virus — 48 in Mexico, three in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.

The United States now has the most confirmed cases — 2,532 in 44 states, more than 900 ahead of Mexico's total, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday.

In Mexico, crews worked through the weekend to cleanse school buildings and make sure they were stocked with sanitary supplies as 25 million children prepared to resume their studies after a two-week break that began when authorities ordered schools closed in the Mexico City region on April 24 and then the whole country three days later.

"We have cleaned the windows, classrooms, blackboards, floors, bathrooms, everything," Flor Carpio, whose husband is the custodian at Mexico City's Horacio Mann grade school, said Sunday.

At the Rosaura Zapati day care center in central Mexico City, Miguel Sanchez cleaned a staircase with bleach even though he was not totally convinced that swine flu existed.

"To me, it only exists in the mind of (President Felipe) Calderon and the WHO. It is a vile lie," said Sanchez, the center's caretaker.

The federal Education Department said Sunday that 88.9 percent of the nation's estimated 250,000 schools had been cleaned and disinfected.

A day earlier, Secretary of Public Education Alonso Lujambio urged parents not to send their children back to school if they were sick and told teachers to be on guard for possible swine flu cases.

"School life will return to normal as long as the safeguards we have put in place are effective. Help us in this," Lujambio said.

His department said Sunday that groups of teachers and parents would be waiting at entrances to identify any students who showed up with flu symptoms. Any who did would be sent back home, but "without stigmatizing the children or violating their rights," it said.

Mexican health officials say swine flu has been confirmed in 1,626 people, of whom 48 have died. Suspected cases were reported after those numbers were released Saturday, but the government offered no new count on confirmed cases Sunday.

Because of the new suspected cases, the states of Jalisco, Hidalgo, Guerrero, San Luis Potosi, Chiapas and Zacatecas postponed the resumption of classes until May 18. Michoacan said its schools would reopen Tuesday.

High schools and universities restarted last Thursday.

The reopening of kindergartens and primary schools is the latest step in Mexico's efforts to restore a sense of normality after the flu scare. Businesses, restaurants and bars gradually resumed operations over the past week, and except for public servants and restaurant workers, it is less and less common to see people wearing surgical masks.

While Mexico's schools were getting their last-minute sprucing up Sunday, the government ratcheted up its ill feelings toward China over the treatment of Mexican citizens because of the swine flu outbreak

Officials said the country would not participate in a Shanghai trade fair May 19-21 as planned because China had withdrawn Mexico's "guest of honor" status. Thirty Mexican companies had been scheduled to take part.

Mexican officials were already angry over China's quarantining of dozens of Mexican travelers, airline flight cancellations and a ban on its pork products — moves that were part of a wider series of snubs by many nations that has left Mexico feeling unfairly singled out.

"The recently adopted measures by fair organizers and the Chinese government are unacceptable," ProMexico, the government's agency that promotes foreign trade, said in a statement.

China has defended the steps as necessary to keep swine flu out of the world's most populous nation. But on Monday, China reported its first confirmed case of swine flu on the mainland — a 30-year-old Chinese student who had returned from studying at a college in the United States. The Chinese government quarantined dozens of other people who were on a flight with him.

Mexico said Sunday that 13 Mexicans remained in quarantine in China and one in Singapore. Last week Mexico chartered a flight to bring home dozens of its citizens from China. It was unclear if the 14 mentioned Sunday had been placed under restrictions in China since the first group was brought home.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090511/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/med_swine_flu