MEXICO CITY – High schools and universities closed by the swine flu epidemic reopened across Mexico on Thursday as teachers and parents carefully checked returning students for flu symptoms.
Mexico had mobilized teachers and parents to disinfect its schools following a two-week closure intended to curb the spread of the virus. Some youths showing flu symptoms were sent home Thursday. Primary schools will reopen next week.
All places of business — including sports arenas, dance halls, movie theaters and restaurants — were allowed to reopen Thursday after a government-ordered shutdown that began last week.
But establishments must follow hygiene rules, including screening for any sick people, and make surgical masks mandatory for employees.
Secretary of Public Education Alonso Lujambio had called on citizens to show “strength of spirit,” trying to assuage worries that it was too early to restart classes after the flu killed 42 people in Mexico and sickened more than 1,100.
Laughing and joking, high school students gathered at the entrance of the National School of Graphic Arts in Mexico City, waiting to fill out forms that asked about their physical conditions.
Of 280 students entering the school in the first 20 minutes, two showed symptoms of swine flu, including coughing and nasal congestion, said assistant principal Ana Maria Calvo Vega. Their parents were notified and they won’t be readmitted without a statement from a doctor saying they don’t have the virus, she said.
“We’ll be observing these kids all day,” Calvo said. “We have to accept that this illness exists and be careful.”
Parents expressed relief that their children, shuttered too long in homes, could return to class. But they also worried that the virus could surge back once 40 million young people gather in groups again.
“My 17-year-old daughter is afraid. She knows she must go back but doesn’t want to,” said Silvia Mendez as she walked with her 4-year-old son, Enrique, in San Miguel Topilejo, a town perched in forested mountains near the capital.
Mendez and her son wore masks as they headed to the tiny roasted chicken restaurant she owns. Enrique spoke adoringly of his teacher and seemed impatient to get back to kindergarten.
Working parents have struggled to provide child care during the shutdown. It forced many to stay home from work, bring their youngsters to their jobs, or leave them at home.
Isabel Garcia had to leave her 11-year-old son, Charlie, behind while she sold vegetables below a red-domed church in San Miguel Topilejo’s central plaza.
“I’m nervous about him going back to school on Monday. But he will wear a mask and I have instructed him to stay away from any children who appear sick,” Garcia said at her stall, a colorful tableau of radishes, carrots, green onions and other fresh produce.
This swine flu seems to have a long incubation period — five to seven days before people notice symptoms, according to Dr. Marc-Alain Widdowson, a medical epidemiologist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now tracking the flu in Mexico City. That means the virus can keep being spread by people who won’t know to stay home.
Government-mandated “filter” teams, composed of parent volunteers and school officials, will check returning students for any respiratory ailments.
“If the least suspicion exists, the boy or girl can’t remain and the Health Department will be notified,” said Cecilia Landerreche Gomez Morin, director-general of Mexico’s Family Welfare Agency.
The government also created an online manual, “What to do to restart classes without risk?” It calls for parents and school employees to clean classrooms, cafeterias and other areas with water, soap and chlorine, and to provide running water for hand-washing.
Each school, Mexican officials said, must be cleaned and inspected this week. Complicating the task: Many schools are primitive buildings with dirt floors and lack proper bathrooms. It was unclear how students attending those schools could adhere to the government’s strict sanitary conditions.
The government promised detergent, chlorine, trash bags, anti-bacterial soap or antiseptic gel and face masks to state governments for delivery to public schools. But some local districts apparently didn’t get the word.
Guillermo Narro Garza, acting secretary of education for Ciudad Juarez, along the border with Texas, said only chlorine would be used — and that parents have to supply it.
Mexico’s public education department said students must complete the yearly requirement of 800 hours in class, but did not say if the term would be extended because of the shutdown.
U.S. health officials are no longer recommending that schools close because of suspected swine flu cases since the virus has turned out to be milder than initially feared. But many U.S. schools have done so anyway, including the school of the Texas teacher who just died.
Deaths have slowed as the country mobilized an aggressive public health response to the epidemic that has sickened thousands in 24 countries. Sweden and Poland were the latest countries to confirm swine flu cases, both in women who had recently visited the U.S.
In San Diego, Calif., the U.S. Navy canceled the deployment of the USS Dubuque, an amphibious transport ship, after a crew member was confirmed to have swine flu. About 50 others were suspected cases, and all crew members were being treated with antiviral drugs.
In Washington, CDC officials said they identified genetic characteristics of the virus and were in position to produce a vaccine if one is needed.
Canada, meanwhile, said researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, genetically sequenced three samples of the virus from Mexico and Canada, a breakthrough they hope will answer questions about how it spreads and mutates.