Swine Flu Slowing Travel
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
This is the second major hit that the Mexican tourism industry has experienced in the last few weeks. The violence between drug gangs in Mexico and along the Mexico/U.S. border has been in the news lately and has caused the U.S. government to issue warning about traveling down around the border. Adding a health crisis will not help Mexico's tourism recover very well.
Already cases of the same swine flu have been confirmed in several states through out the United States. Around 100 students at a private school in New York have become sick and it has been reported that the sicknesses could be related to the swine flu.
Reports of the swine flu in Mexico first started surfacing back around April 13th. In just under two weeks the cases have spread in numbers and across borders. There have already been 20 confirmed deaths from the swine flu in Mexico.
Mexico has taken extreme measures to stop the spread of this new strain of swine flu. Authorities have ordered the closing of schools, museums and other public gathering areas. So far the U.S. has not imposed any travel restrictions to or from Mexico. The U.S. Embassy has issued advisories that citizens avoid large crowds, shaking hands or greeting others with a kiss.
Swine flu is a form of influenza (with this strain being a combination of swine, bird and human influenza) can be contracted through physical contact with an infected individual. More often it will be contracted from a cough or a sneeze. There is no correlation between eating pork and contracting swine flu.
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