Immediate action & planning ahead

I think in this scenario, Mexico was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. H1N1 did not originate in the country--it actually originated here in California and then spread to Mexico--but they will forever suffer the stigmatism that they were the ones who subsequently "infected" the rest of the world. In terms of how Mexico handled the flu outbreak, I think they went about it in a very logical manner. They shut down many businesses, schools, and churches--basically places where a lot of people would congregate--and quarantined those who had the illness. They issued warnings to their own citizens traveling out of Mexico to be aware of not spreading anything outside of the country. They were also extremely cooperative with the international community and the WHO in providing information about the outbreak and what was going on in-country to contain it.

Mauricio Hernandez, deputy of the Ministry of Health in Mexico, was here at USC a few weeks ago and he mentioned that they were able to go about containing the disease and maintaining a certain level of public calm because they had emergency plans in place in the event of an outbreak such as this. There wasn't much confusion on the part of government and administration because there was actually a protocol that was set forth long ago, and all they had to do was follow it. I think this was prudent planning on their part; and evidently, it came into good use.