From the Americas to the World

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In April, 2009 a new influenza virus, from porcine origin, was detected in Mexico City and blamed as responsible for the death of young adults with pneumonia. The patients were seen within the brief lapse of a week at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases of Mexico; three main factors contributed to trigger the awakening call from the Mexican Health authority that evolved, within a few weeks, into an unprecedented international epidemiological alert orchestrated by the World Health Organization which culminated with the “Pandemic alert grade VI”; it meant that the disease had already disseminated worldwide; the factors were: a) the presence of various cases of severe influenza in healthy adults, b) the presence of the disease in the middle of spring, an abnormal timing for seasonal influenza and c) the identification by molecular methods of a brand new influenza virus from porcine origin infecting humans. According to the standards settled by the WHO these characteristics represented the much feared possibility of an influenza pandemic of potential catastrophic consequences; thus, the Ministry of Health of Mexico implemented at measures which had already been planned two years before in the case of facing such event. The Minister of Health appeared on national TV indicating the closure of schools at all levels in Mexico City and various other actions aiming to social distancing and medical alert in all health institutions, together with the development of technical skills for the reliable detection of the new virus in specialized laboratories. Through the epidemic in Mexico several new factors were learned, the capacity of society to deal with similar events was put to test. From this experience, several scientific reports from our Institutes have been published; they provide a new framework for more efficient responses in future events.