Swine Flu

Filed in archive Latin Travel on July 21, 2009

© tiswango

It would be an exaggeration to say that Swine Flu (H1N1) was sweeping Latin America, but it is definitely getting around. And it is causing some pain in the tourism industry.

Ecuador reported its first deaths from Swine Flu earlier this month. The virus was detected in Ecuador in April. Bloomberg reported last week that Peru was worried enough about the spread of the virus to cancel their Independence Day military parade. Swine Flu cases there number into the thousands and a dozen people are dead from it.

Argentina has also been hit by the bug. The U.S State Department issued a travel alert for Argentina until September 14 because of the pandemic. Argentina is the hardest hit country in Latin America.

Some Swine Flu numbers, as of July 21: USA 40,617 cases, 299 deaths; Argentina 3,056 cases, 168 deaths; Mexico 14,229 cases, 128 deaths; Chile 10,926 cases, 40 deaths; Uruguay 550 cases, 19 deaths; Brazil 1,175 cases, 15 deaths; Peru 2,761 cases, 12 deaths; Costa Rica 428 cases, 11 deaths; Paraguay 175 cases, 10 deaths; Colombia 202 cases, 8 deaths; Ecuador 374 cases, 7 deaths; El Salvador 374 cases, 7 deaths; Bolivia 715 cases, 5 deaths; Guatemala 374 cases, 2 deaths; Venezuela 281 cases, 2 deaths; Dominican Republic 108 cases, 2 deaths; Panama 541 cases, 1 death; and Honduras 123 cases, 1 death.