Post by brassmonkey on May 8, 2009 10:00:16 GMT -5
This headline had me ROTFL... You couldn't scrub Mexico clean with a a million gallons of bleach and and army of workers..
Mexico City is one of the most disgusting places I've ever had the displeasure of going, and the sights and stench stuck with me..
There is truckload after truckload of garbage and refuse dumped down the sides of mountains, and the cities are dusty and dirty and full of beggars trying to sell you crap they dug out of the landfill and make into something even more useless..
It's no surprise that Mexico is where the Swine Flu hails from. Mexicans are still brining TB into the U.S., so it was inevitable that they'd bring something even worse given time..
Mexico scrubs itself clean to combat flu outbreak
07 May 2009 20:55:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For full coverage of the flu outbreak, click [nFLU])
* Hand hygiene forced on restaurant patrons
* Subway hands millions of masks to passengers
* Experts hope precautions will stay after flu is gone
By Daniel Trotta
MEXICO CITY, May 7 (Reuters) - Mexico is scrubbing itself clean to battle the new H1N1 flu, taking unprecedented precautions in restaurants, public transport and museums that officials hope will take hold once the health crisis passes.
In a country where poverty often prevents basic hygiene and many people wrongly believe a shot of tequila or a squeeze of lime juice will kill microbes, a sudden and urgent education in epidemiology is taking hold.
"This is breaking with a paradigm. I think there will be a change. It has been an important lesson for society," said Dr Pablo Kuri, an adviser to Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova.
The swine flu virus has killed at least 44 people in Mexico and two in the United States and infected more than 2,000 people in 24 countries, triggering fears of a pandemic.
The scouring started in Mexico City's subway on April 23, the same day health officials warned of a possible epidemic, when metro workers doubled their cleaning schedules and handed out millions of surgical masks and doses of anti-bacterial hand sanitizers. Within days every train, station, handrail, ticket counter and stairway was disinfected, officials said.
When restaurants reopened on Wednesday after a five-day national lockdown of non-essential businesses, customers were triple-cleansed at some establishments with a shot of hand sanitizer followed by an obligatory hand-wash where a bathroom attendant applied one final blast of alcohol to the palms.
But that was at upscale establishments. In a pedestrian tunnel beneath a Mexico City highway, none of the workers at 10 food stands used surgical masks. Food handlers cleaved chunks of goat meat and fresh fruit with bare hands.
"We stopped using them (masks and gloves) yesterday. They're so uncomfortable," said taco vendor Jacobo Hernandez, 25. "The whole thing was a bunch of bull."
CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
Poor neighborhoods, such as the slum of Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl on the edge of the capital where water taps run dry, struggled with the flu hygiene measures. [nN07397054]
But at Mexico City's world-renowned National Anthropology Museum, which reopened on Thursday, employees painstakingly wiped down every article and book on sale in the gift shop with disinfectant.
Authorities required three separate health checks to get inside. Outside, officials in blue surgical gowns obliged visitors to fill out health questionnaires. Then, a doctor in a white coat asked whether they had flu symptoms and made them put on a flimsy cloth mask. Once inside, visitors were made to wash their hands with sanitized gel -- for the third time.
"The museum has been scrubbed from top to bottom," said Benito Taibo, chief spokesman for Mexico's National Anthropology Institute.
"This is going to transform the culture, of course," said Francisco de Souza, chief spokesman for Mexico City's public transportation network, which moves 5 million passengers a day. "This is going to teach us a new cleaning protocol that can only benefit us in the medium and long term."
That would be welcome news for foreign tourists who are susceptible to "Moctezuma's Revenge," the Mexican version of traveler's diarrhea, and for the Mexican public.
Good hygiene can reduce the risk of all sorts of infections from common colds and pneumonia to gastrointestinal infections that kill thousands of Mexicans a year. (Additional reporting by Noe Torres and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Eric Beech)
Mexico City is one of the most disgusting places I've ever had the displeasure of going, and the sights and stench stuck with me..
There is truckload after truckload of garbage and refuse dumped down the sides of mountains, and the cities are dusty and dirty and full of beggars trying to sell you crap they dug out of the landfill and make into something even more useless..
It's no surprise that Mexico is where the Swine Flu hails from. Mexicans are still brining TB into the U.S., so it was inevitable that they'd bring something even worse given time..
Mexico scrubs itself clean to combat flu outbreak
07 May 2009 20:55:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For full coverage of the flu outbreak, click [nFLU])
* Hand hygiene forced on restaurant patrons
* Subway hands millions of masks to passengers
* Experts hope precautions will stay after flu is gone
By Daniel Trotta
MEXICO CITY, May 7 (Reuters) - Mexico is scrubbing itself clean to battle the new H1N1 flu, taking unprecedented precautions in restaurants, public transport and museums that officials hope will take hold once the health crisis passes.
In a country where poverty often prevents basic hygiene and many people wrongly believe a shot of tequila or a squeeze of lime juice will kill microbes, a sudden and urgent education in epidemiology is taking hold.
"This is breaking with a paradigm. I think there will be a change. It has been an important lesson for society," said Dr Pablo Kuri, an adviser to Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova.
The swine flu virus has killed at least 44 people in Mexico and two in the United States and infected more than 2,000 people in 24 countries, triggering fears of a pandemic.
The scouring started in Mexico City's subway on April 23, the same day health officials warned of a possible epidemic, when metro workers doubled their cleaning schedules and handed out millions of surgical masks and doses of anti-bacterial hand sanitizers. Within days every train, station, handrail, ticket counter and stairway was disinfected, officials said.
When restaurants reopened on Wednesday after a five-day national lockdown of non-essential businesses, customers were triple-cleansed at some establishments with a shot of hand sanitizer followed by an obligatory hand-wash where a bathroom attendant applied one final blast of alcohol to the palms.
But that was at upscale establishments. In a pedestrian tunnel beneath a Mexico City highway, none of the workers at 10 food stands used surgical masks. Food handlers cleaved chunks of goat meat and fresh fruit with bare hands.
"We stopped using them (masks and gloves) yesterday. They're so uncomfortable," said taco vendor Jacobo Hernandez, 25. "The whole thing was a bunch of bull."
CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION
Poor neighborhoods, such as the slum of Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl on the edge of the capital where water taps run dry, struggled with the flu hygiene measures. [nN07397054]
But at Mexico City's world-renowned National Anthropology Museum, which reopened on Thursday, employees painstakingly wiped down every article and book on sale in the gift shop with disinfectant.
Authorities required three separate health checks to get inside. Outside, officials in blue surgical gowns obliged visitors to fill out health questionnaires. Then, a doctor in a white coat asked whether they had flu symptoms and made them put on a flimsy cloth mask. Once inside, visitors were made to wash their hands with sanitized gel -- for the third time.
"The museum has been scrubbed from top to bottom," said Benito Taibo, chief spokesman for Mexico's National Anthropology Institute.
"This is going to transform the culture, of course," said Francisco de Souza, chief spokesman for Mexico City's public transportation network, which moves 5 million passengers a day. "This is going to teach us a new cleaning protocol that can only benefit us in the medium and long term."
That would be welcome news for foreign tourists who are susceptible to "Moctezuma's Revenge," the Mexican version of traveler's diarrhea, and for the Mexican public.
Good hygiene can reduce the risk of all sorts of infections from common colds and pneumonia to gastrointestinal infections that kill thousands of Mexicans a year. (Additional reporting by Noe Torres and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Eric Beech)
