Op-Ed: Flu-like disease kills 61 in Mexico, offers lessons on reporting

The idea was to do a story on the Mexican flu outbreak. But the reporting quality is now news in its own right. Sixty-one people are said to have died from a disease “genetically identical” to a new form of swine flu.

Now, try and get some news, and it ain’t easy. All that can be said about the information provided so far is that if this is a real pandemic, and this is how real time information is disseminated by mass media, God help the human race. The information regarding the virus outbreak is presented line by line by Reuters on Yahoo News, in such a disorganized way that it’s difficult to know what to call information. It was difficult to know what to quote, if anything. No danger of plagiarism with this load of semi digested whatever it is. Translated from the original vegetable form, the information available is as follows: The basic information about the virus: The virus is identical to the swine flu type H1N1. The virus is of an unknown type, and appears to contain avian, human and swine flu characteristics. The virus is contagious, spread by human contact. The World Health Organization says containment is not possible. Effects of the virus in Mexico The Mexican government has cancelled classes for children in Mexico City and the surrounding areas. Nobody knows why the effects seem different in Mexico to those so far seen in the US. Travel and infection precautions Neither The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO) see any requirement for special precautions when traveling to Mexico. That’s confirmed by CDC information. Nice to know someone at least has an opinion, after all this authoritative non description. That, folks, and 61 deaths, are the information as presented. In other words, “The sky might be falling”. Too bad about the population of the West Coast, southern USA, Central America, and anyone living near a main road with people on it in North America, isn’t it, they’d have to guess what was happening. Somehow, I felt I needed more facts. So a bit of research was required: The quotes from CDC’s transcript on its briefing by CDC’s acting director Richard Besser are the official current position. The WHO also issued a statement today, with this interesting bit of information, which Reuters, and just about everyone else, so efficiently didn’t use in initial reports:

The Government of Mexico has reported three separate events. In the Federal District of Mexico, surveillance began picking up cases of ILI starting 18 March. The number of cases has risen steadily through April and as of 23 April there are now more than 854 cases of pneumonia from the capital. Of those, 59 have died. In San Luis Potosi, in central Mexico, 24 cases of ILI, with three deaths, have been reported. And from Mexicali, near the border with the United States, four cases of ILI, with no deaths, have been reported.

Of the Mexican cases, 18 have been laboratory confirmed in Canada as Swine Influenza A/H1N1, while 12 of those are genetically identical to the Swine Influenza A/H1N1 viruses from California.

The majority of these cases have occurred in otherwise healthy young adults. Influenza normally affects the very young and the very old, but these age groups have not been heavily affected in Mexico.

That info didn’t even rate a mention anywhere else I’ve seen on this subject. I assume this relates to the famous principle of never allowing facts to interfere with reporting. The Wall Street Journal didn’t have any trouble getting its information. According to the WSJ, the whole of Mexico City is wearing face masks, and the death rate is considered to be slowing. Apparently Tamiful and Relenza both work on the new flu, and Mexico has plenty of anti flu vaccines. Which raises the question of why 1,000 people are infected, and why there’s such an obvious level of concern. You’d have to wonder why the Mexican government is holding emergency meetings to deal with the outbreak, and why the new figure being quoted is 20, not 16 or 61. According to Xinhua, a massive vaccination campaign is being planned. So the situation, to put it mildly, is obscure. The WHO information is the coherent info, the rest appears to have been glued together by editors. CDC is taking an “official” position, mainly because that’s its role, but obviously more information is being sought. Bloomberg, meanwhile, has reported that mass issues of face masks will take place in Mexico City, and the death toll is now 68. Bloomberg had the novel idea of asking the Mexican Health Minister for a comment, and miraculously got a comment. What wonders we see in this world. Most historically documented instances of sneezing have been better coordinated than the information made available to the public on this subject. Is it really asking so much of multi billion dollar organizations to report straight facts clearly? According to Google News, there are now 3,855 articles on this subject. How useful any of them are should be the subject of some pretty serious debate in the worlds of publishing and journalism, because this just isn’t good enough.