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I feel great says boy, 5, at centre of outbreak
Mark Prigg29 Apr 2009
A five-year-old boy emerged today as the suspected first victim of swine flu in Mexico.
Edgar Hernández, who lives in the "ground zero" village of La Gloria which is thought to be at the centre of the virus, survived the infection which has killed 159 people in Mexico.
He suffered the symptoms "a few weeks ago", shortly after the death of two other children in the village from what was thought to be pneumonia. Their bodies are to be exhumed as scientists try to discover how the virus jumped from pigs to humans.
Today he said: "I feel great. But I had a headache and a sore throat and a fever for a while. I had to lie down in bed."
His mother, Maria, 34, said: "I have very good faith in God, but I was so worried. I couldn't sleep because I had to be by his side taking care of him all the time."
La Gloria is now the epicentre of the virus. Investigations are under way into a pig farm named Granjas Carroll de México, which is a 50 per cent owned subsidiary of American pork producer Smithfield Foods.
It was at the centre of protests this month over odours from pig waste which locals claimed caused respiratory infections.
"People say it's Granjas Carroll's fault because of the pigs," Ms Hernández said. "Sometimes there are a lot of flies around but here there aren't pigs. I can't say anything because I have no evidence. I have no explanation for the disease that my son had."
Smithfield Foods did not to comment.
The firm, which supplies the McDonald's and Subway fast-food chains, was fined $12.3million (£8.4million) in 1997 for violating the Clean Water Act in America.
The scale of worldwide infection was growing today, with more than 2,498 cases of the flu reported in Mexico. In America there were 65 confirmed cases. All have been traced to people who had been to Mexico or who had contact with those who had.
Canada has 13 cases, Israel two and in Australia more than 100 people are being tested. There are two cases in Spain and three in New Zealand.
