This is bad. Via El Financiero en línea: Ocupación al 50% en hospitales del DF por influenza A(H1N1): Ssa. [H1N1 fills 50% of hospitals in Federal District: Health] Excerpt, with my translation:
El secretario de salud José Angel Córdova Villalobos informó que la ocupación general de los hospitales en esta capital por influenza A(H1N1) está alrededor del 50 por ciento.
Health Secretary José Ángel Córdova Villalobos says that beds in the hospitals of the capital are about 50% filled with H1N1 cases.
Entrevistado luego de dirigir su mensaje en la ceremonia de toma de posesión del director general del Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica, Javier Soberón Mainero, precisó que hay suficiente espacio para atender estos enfermos en caso de que se incrementen los casos del nuevo virus por el frío.
Interview after speaking at the installation of Javier Soberón Mainero as Director General of the National Institute of Genomic Medicine, the secretary said there is enough space to care for these patients if the cold weather increases the number of cases.
Precisó que sin duda hay más demanda en hospitales como el de Especialidades, así como los Institutos Nacionales de Enfermedades Respiratorias y de Nutrición.
He said that there is doubtless more demand in specialized hospitals, such as the National Institutes of Respiratory Diseases and of Nutrition.
Comentó que no se debe bajar la guardia en ningún momento para prevenir y contener los posibles contagios por influenza A(H1N1), ya que en principio el frío que se ha desatado en los últimos días podría influir en el aumento de casos.
He added that we should not lower our guard for a moment in preventing and containing possible infections of H1N1, now that the cooler weather of the last few days could increase the number of cases.When I was a kid there almost 60 years ago, Mexico City was a sleepy little village of just 3 million, and the whole country had only 27 million--a quarter of the country's present population. Now Mexico City is the biggest metropolis in the Americas, with something like 22 million residents.
If half the beds in such a city's hospitals are taken by H1N1 patients, I'm not entirely reassured by the Health Secretary's optimism about more beds being available. After all, some residents are going to fall ill of other diseases.
The whole of Canada has a population of 33 million, not that much more than Mexico City's. If half of Canada's hospital beds held H1N1 patients tonight, we would be a different country in the morning.
