Mexicans will do almost anything to avoid a public hospital emergency room, where ailing patients may languish for hours slumped on cracked linoleum floors that smell of sweat, sickness and pine-scented disinfectant. Many don't see doctors at all, heading instead to the clerk at the corner pharmacy for advice on coping with a cold or a flu. So it's no surprise that when a dangerous new swine flu virus began to sweep across Mexico, many waited too long to seek medical help — more than a week on average, according to federal Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova. Mexico keeps close watch on dangerous tropical diseases such as dengue, but epidemiologists pay less attention to flu, just one class of viruses contributing to Mexico's 23 million annual cases of respiratory illness. Mexican doctors "really were not trained thinking of the existence of influenza" as a specific threat, Lopez Cervantes said. In all of 2008, Mexico's official epidemiological bulletin reported only 151 confirmed cases of flu. By comparison, U.S. officials ran tests that confirmed nearly 40,000 flu cases last season. Mexico has about a third the population of the United States.

Should Americans be scared of the new breakout of the Swine Flu? Should the media be right in calling it n1h1 to make it sound less scary?

I believe that we should take more precautions as Americans, and take care of ourselves. I think that we should watch for anyone who has symtoms or even look like they have symtoms of the swine flu. I do not think that we should make as big of a deal of the situation as we have been making it. Also I think that the Doctors in Mexico should have more traing in dealing with things such as this. The article was good on touching on how people should deal with swine flu and the symtoms of it. I do not believe the media should call it n1h1 just so it seems like it is not a big issue. It still is a issue and we should deal with it.