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 inspection 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."