MEXICO CITY — No one has identified ground zero in the swine flu epidemic. Just where or when the strain of influenza first jumped from a pig and began infecting people is a scientific mystery — one that officials are determined to solve.
Scientists are returning next week to La Gloria, a pig-farming village in the Veracruz mountains where Mexico’s earliest confirmed case of swine flu was identified. They hope to learn where the epidemic began by taking fresh blood samples from villagers and pigs.
Some experts say it’s pointless to worry about what happened in La Gloria now that the virus has spread around the world. Others say a thorough investigation could help prevent future epidemics.
And Mexico has another reason to care: If it can somehow rule out the possibility that La Gloria’s pigs infected humans, then it can tell the world it wasn’t to blame — that the H1N1 virus came from somewhere else.
More than half of La Gloria’s 3,000 residents fell ill with flu symptoms weeks before the virus was identified. Many found it hard to breathe, burned with fever and ached. About 450 of the sickest residents were diagnosed with acute respiratory infections and sent home with antibiotics and masks.
Mexican health officials initially downplayed the outbreak, saying the villagers suffered from regular flu. A 5-year-old boy was the only confirmed swine flu case among 43 villagers whose mucous samples were taken in early April. But some disease experts suspect swine flu was circulating more widely in La Gloria.
Crossing species
Pigs — like people — get the flu, usually over the winter months. This new virus is unusual in that it also has infected humans and has become a full-blown human flu.
La Gloria’s villagers believe they were sickened by the surrounding commercial pig farms. But the pork industry wants a closer look at pigs raised in the villagers’ back yards.
by the associated press
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