The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 5/11/09 Section: News

Chimalhuacan, one of the poorest communities in the country on the outskirts of Mexico City, is seen from the Tlatel-Xichitencol trash dump, Thursday. Now the world must face what Mexicans, due to the swine flu outbreak, learned as they stayed home from schools and restaurants, venturing outside fearfully in face masks: rich and poor breathe the same air. The 49 people killed so far range from poor day laborers to the grandson of one of the richest men in Mexico.(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

MEXICO CITY (AP) - On the western edge of Mexico's capital, 10 new luxury apartment towers promise an antiseptically modern lifestyle with spas, private playgrounds and an exclusive shopping center. Blocks away, a world-class private hospital has opened.

But there's no escaping the view from these $1.5 million apartments: Just across a ravine is a slum where maids and construction workers make do in crowded, humid homes of raw concrete and spotty drinking water. For them, getting sick means medicating themselves at a discount pharmacy, or waiting for hours in an overcrowded public hospital.

Wealthy Mexicans aren't alone in trying - and failing - to distance themselves from deprivation and disease. People all over the world want to protect their families from the problems of the less fortunate.

But if there's anything we've learned from the swine flu epidemic, it is this: the virus doesn't discriminate.

"We're all in this together," President Barack Obama said as he urged public health agencies to reach all corners of America. "When one person gets sick, it has the potential of making us all sick."

The outbreak might not have become an epidemic if Mexico's first swine flu victims had been identified and treated quickly. We now know that for most, the virus causes only mild symptoms, and that nearly all of those who become quite sick can recover if they get proper treatment within 48 hours.

We also know that most of Mexico's dead didn't get that treatment in time.

Continued...

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