tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
MCALLEN, Tex. ? Last April, a 33-year-old South Texas schoolteacher became the first American to die of the H1N1 ?swine? flu virus.
Since her death, the H1N1 death rate in this region has been among the highest in the country. Fifty-three people have died of H1N1 in South Texas out of a population of 2 million, representing one-fourth of all H1N1 deaths in the state.
It could have been much worse, said health officials at a meeting organized by New America Media at the Texas A&M Health Science Center and sponsored by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). South Texas is a major population center but residents say they have long been ignored by the rest of the country, and have had to fend for themselves.
?We are the only ones who advocate for South Texas,? said Eduardo Olivarez, chief administrative officer for Health and Human Services of Hidalgo County, one of four counties in the Rio Grande Valley at the southern tip of Texas. ?No one advocates for South Texas. They worry about big cities.?
But Olivarez pointed out that within a two and a half hour drive of McAllen in
any direction there are 14 million people.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=4613175da7c48de3c9c471ecb0ac298b
Since her death, the H1N1 death rate in this region has been among the highest in the country. Fifty-three people have died of H1N1 in South Texas out of a population of 2 million, representing one-fourth of all H1N1 deaths in the state.
It could have been much worse, said health officials at a meeting organized by New America Media at the Texas A&M Health Science Center and sponsored by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). South Texas is a major population center but residents say they have long been ignored by the rest of the country, and have had to fend for themselves.
?We are the only ones who advocate for South Texas,? said Eduardo Olivarez, chief administrative officer for Health and Human Services of Hidalgo County, one of four counties in the Rio Grande Valley at the southern tip of Texas. ?No one advocates for South Texas. They worry about big cities.?
But Olivarez pointed out that within a two and a half hour drive of McAllen in
any direction there are 14 million people.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=4613175da7c48de3c9c471ecb0ac298b