Mexico plans response to bird-flu mutation
Mexican Health Secretary Julio Frenk on Thursday announced a national response plan in the event that the bird flu now affecting parts of Asia turns into a human pandemic.
The plan, a joint effort between numerous Mexican federal agencies, includes Mexico on a list of the first countries that would receive a vaccine against a human strain of the flu – when and if it is developed.
It also sets aside $55 million that will be partly used to invest in technology that would enable Mexico to develop such a vaccine in the future.
The money also will be used to obtain a stockpile of existing anti-viral drugs and antibiotics, as well as protective material for health personnel, and to fund nationwide monitoring for the detection of early cases of a potential human strain of the bird flu.
“This shouldn’t be cause for panic,'’ Frenk told a news conference. “There isn’t a worldwide pandemic right now. We are simply preparing for an event that experts say could occur at some point, but which hasn’t occurred.'’
More: mercurynews.com
Mexico hopes to rid country of bird flu by end of 2006
Mexico hopes to be able to declare all 31 states and the capital free from bird flu before the end of 2006, and will soon approve rules to deal with low-pathogenicity strains and other, more dangerous forms, officials said Wednesday.
Currently, 15 Mexican states have been declared free of bird flu and work is being done in another 16 -- most in the country's central region.
The country has made "great progress" in combatting the lower-risk form of bird flu and will be working with farmers to achieve disease-free
Mexico controls bird flu outbreak: official
Mexican Health Minister Julio Frenk said Friday that his country had controlled the outbreak of bird flu in Chiapas state on the Guatemala border, adding there was no risk for human health.
Speaking at a Mexico City press conference, Frenk said that Mexico had been maintaining vigilance for years, making sure that bird flu was kept under control.
This vigilance helped the early detection of outbreak, spotted 15 days ago that has hit 300 birds. There was little risk that the human population could be infected, unlike the virus present in Europe and Asia, he
Mexico limiting access to meth ingredients
The cardboard boxes were stacked neatly from floor to ceiling, many with white importation stickers still attached. Federal agents found more than 13,000 anti-flu tablets inside them and arrested a teenager arriving in a pickup with nearly 1,000 more.
Such raids have become too common to make headlines in Mexico, where secret laboratories like the one raided near Guadalajara this month turn tons of imported cold pills each year into a flood of methamphetamine.
In response, the Americas' largest producer of methamphetamine has quietly begun imposing restrictions on the importation of pseudoephedrine, the cold-pill ingredient used to
Volkswagen plans to build new model at Mexico plant
Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest car maker, plans to build a new stationwagon in Mexico from the end of 2006, but with output planned at below capacity, the vehicle will not require a new plant.
Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz, VW's (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) global head of purchasing, said on Tuesday that Volkswagen had selected Mexico to be the sole producer of the Jetta stationwagon, known in Europe as the Golf stationwagon.
Otto Lindner, chairman of Volkswagen Mexico, said the plans for the new vehicle were part of the company's previously stated $2
Cozumel
The town, San Miguel de Cozumel, is a seedy, overpriced version ofPlaya del Carmen. C Daily tour groups arrive on cruises from Miami and Cancun, and the towns' services seem geared towards this type of tourist. But Cozumel is a mecca for scuba divers, with many beautiful offshore reefs to explore, as well as much interesting wildlife and bird life. Travellers looking for a beach holiday with some nightlife will find the island disap¬pointing compared to Playa del Carmen. There is only one nice beach, on the west side, and the eastern, Atlantic coast is
Mexico demanding a response
ONE month after Mexicos elections uncertainty still remains over who actually won them, while tensions is growing in expectation of a decision by the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF), which has the faculty of ordering a recount or even annulling the election.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the candidate of the For the Good of All coalition, says that a lack of political will and not the law is preventing the TEPJF from ordering a recount of each vote cast in the July 2 elections which, in his opinion, would serve to clear
Doctor visits outsourced to Mexico
There are world-class hospitals in San Diego, not far from where Luis Gonzales lives. But when he or a member of his family needs routine health services, they drive 50 miles south to a clinic in Tijuana.
The Gonzaleses are members of a Blue Shield of California HMO that provides all of the family's nonemergency care in Mexico. They are among 20,000 California workers and their dependents in health plans that cost 40 to 50 percent less than comparable care in the United States because the doctor's visits are outsourced south of the border.
With health-care costs
Insurance plans send patients to Mexico
A more cost-effective health care plan for southern California's Latino workers has employees going south of the border to see a doctor.
Insurance companies say about 160,000 workers visit doctors in Mexico to take advantage of the low premiums and co-pays, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Some executives as well as farmers, service industry employees and municipal employees in San Diego and Imperial counties are enrolled in the insurance plans.
Although conditions aren't as pristine as major U.S. hospitals, patients have voiced little complaint and have reported doctors spend more time with them.
They also like to be
Delta to fly eight new routes to Mexico
Delta Air Lines Inc. on Tuesday said it plans to fly eight new routes to Mexico as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan, which includes boosting international capacity.
The nonstop service would include flights from Atlanta to Acapulco and Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa; from Boston, Cincinnati and Washington to Cancun and from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa.
Delta is waiting for clearance from the Transportation Department on several of the routes but, if added, the new flights would more than double its service to Mexico by April 2006.
The additions are a response "to
California health costs send patients to Mexico facilities
There are world-class hospitals in San Diego, not far from where Luis Gonzales lives. But when he or a member of his family needs routine health services, they drive 50 miles south to a clinic in Tijuana.
The Gonzaleses are members of a Blue Shield of California HMO that provides the family's nonemergency care in Mexico. They are among 20,000 California workers and dependents in plans that cost 40 to 50 percent less than comparable care in the United States because doctor's visits are outsourced south of the border.
With healthcare costs in the
