(Photo: 1918 flu poster, Idaho Observer, October 2005)
Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, Mexican Secretary of Health, reports 149 confirmed dead and almost 2000 hospitalized cases of "grave pneumonia".
The news is moving faster than the web can track. Britain's Daily Mail, in a story datelined 6:26 pm today (about 35 minutes ago as I write this) reported Villalobos as saying 103 deaths and 1614 suspected cases. Keep your eyes on the Veratect twitter feed for up-to-date information.
To add insult to injury, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit about 150 miles south of Mexico City in Guerrero state, near Tixtla. No reports of injury or damage, but office workers poured into the otherwise empty streets of Mexico City as tall buildings magnified the earth motion. NBC says 5.6 magnitude.
Sarai Luna Pajas, a social services worker was standing outside her office building after the quake:
I'm scared ... We Mexicans are not used to living with so much fear, but all that is happening -- the economic crisis, the illnesses and now this -- it feels like the Apocalypse.
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