A Mexican student writes on the influenza H1N1.
By Andrea Arzaba
© PBS. Mexico City residents are wearing face masks and avoiding public places like schools and churches
It all started on Thursday 23rd of April, right before going to sleep. I had just finished my last paper due on Friday, the next day, for University. It was about midnight when I heard my mom calling me. “You will not have classes tomorrow, there is a strange virus and nobody in the State and in the City will be attending school”. I could not believe. It sounded like a joke. I quickly called a friend and she told me it was real, everybody was talking about it. Quickly, I went back to my computer and entered Facebook, where I saw in most of my friends status statements related to influenza, not going to school and confusion. It was real. Something that we had never experienced in our lives was happening.
Now, a week later, I am still missing classes, and this is why I decided to write this blog entry, because I would like people from other countries to know what is happening in my own.
On Friday the 24th, nobody went out of their houses unless they really had too. You could see empty streets and sense the fear and uncertainity in the city. Some people were wearing surgical masks, something right out of horror movies, but it was actually happening in our city!
On the news, all we could hear was INFLUENZA, INFLUENZA and MORE INFLUENZA. And it was then, that all our doubts started to get answered. Apparently swine flu is a respiratory disease, caused by influenza A which infects pigs. There is not only a single type, and it keeps on changing, that was why the government decided to suspend classes. They were afraid, and they wanted people to prevent getting infected by getting together in groups or crowds.
A week has passed now since schools were closed. Time is passing very slowly, and still media keeps on talking about the swine flu. We keep on getting the same information every 30 minutes. I believe that in some way, they have contributed in the creation of a collective paranoia. Everybody is afraid of getting infected, even with their own family and friends. If somebody gets a symptom, from a headache to sore throat or coughs, this collective fear pulls at you and makes you think you are infected. I believe this is a crucial issue happening in our country, and in the world, but people feel even worst when they try to get information, because they are only getting negative messages all the time.
It is also a reality that certain countries are closing borders, which makes it even scarier. Now, just because our nationality is Mexican, we cannot step into some places. It is important to mention that this disease has a cure, and If you are taking the precautions that have been mentioned, it is not easy to get infected.
I would like to invite people who are reading this not to lose hope, to not consider Mexico as a sick country, because that would be generalizing, and instead to stay informed. Try to look on this issue in more than one source, newspapers from different countries, tv stations, websites. And one of the most important things is to stay positive, have a good attitude towards life, because the secret of health is not only in our body but in our mind too.
This article was published in LACVOX: Unicef 's blog today.
http://www.lacvox.net/?p=694
Thank u!!!!
