Nerves in Mexico City on edge over swine flu (Feature)

By Andrea Sosa Cabrios Apr 29, 2009, 14:32 GMT

Mexico City - With an altered routine, kids at home and the ever-present fear of getting infected anywhere with the mutant swine flu virus, Mexico City was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

'I'm going crazy,' lawyer Fernanda Salles told German Press Agency dpa.

The mother of two girls opted to take her work home after the government closed city schools from last Friday until at least May 6.

'I sit down to work a little, I stay with the girls a little. It's crazy,' the working mother explained.

For many families, influenza - which has killed at least 159 people in Mexico, including seven who have died of swine flu - is a logistical problem more than it is a public health issue. If anything, it looks likely to affect many people's mental health.

There is no daycare, school, or cinema. The authorities recommend keeping young children at home. And, of course, people have to keep working.

They do not even have the option of taking the family out to lunch, because Mexico City authorities have banned restaurants from serving food on their premises to hinder the propagation of the virus. People can only resort to take-away.

According to the video-rental company Blockbuster, rentals have soared since the outbreak began. The chain usually rents out some 70,000 films on the average day across Mexico, 20,000 of them in Mexico City.

'Now we are 20 per cent above the same week last year,' Blockbuster's commercial director Eduardo Porras told dpa.

The most popular picks are action films, comedies and children's titles. Employees hand them out wearing face masks, and they clean their hands with bactericidal gel.

Many families have gotten organized to have relatives who do not work outside the house take care of the kids: grandmothers watch their grandchildren, aunts babysit their nephews and nieces.

And many parents have had to change their own routine too. In the face of the epidemic, some firms have cut working hours down to half, or they established staggered shifts. Others have stuck to their usual timetables.

In a 20-million metropolis, almost no one works close to home. Most take the subway or the bus, and not everyone wears the uncomfortable face masks in public transport. The risk of infection is latent.

'I had to pace down my rhythm of work. Today I no longer wanted to come to the office, but I had to. In the coming days I am determined to cut down on (time in) the office to the absolute minimum,' said Pilar Velasco, 43.

Velasco, an insurance agent, usually travels all around the city everyday to take care of her clients.

Some supermarkets have registered panic buying.

'I am scared that things may run short, or that the authorities could give the order that no one can leave home. I plan to buy at least enough for a month,' Velasco said.

Since the weekend, families have been pushed into the intense experience of having to live together all day, for days on end.

'I tell my husband that after this you are going to have the births of the children of influenza, or there are going to be queues at the civil registry office due to the large number of divorce filings,' said Esther de Sandoval, a mother-of-two who has been locked down at home since Friday.