Child dies in Houston from Swine Flu

By Jessica Gogan mailto:jdg027@shsu.edu

Unfortunately, the growing Swine Flu epidemic has reached Texas. The first US confirmed victim was a 23 month-old who got symptoms while visiting his family in Brownsville, Texas. He was from Matamoros, Mexico.

Texas Governor Rick Perry issued a disaster proclamation with 16 confirmed cases of swine flu in the state this morning. Perry and other Texas officials have also ordered that all high schools in the state put a half to sports.

The disease has spread from Europe to Mexico, 159 of the deaths being in Mexico. According to the World Health Organisation, 2,498 people are currently infected there.

President Obama responded to the crisis by saying, "we are closely and continuously monitoring the emergent cases of this virus throughout the United States. This is obviously a serious situation. Serious enough to take the utmost precautions."

An utmost precaution would be to shut down the border for the time being. The President needs to stop worrying about being "politically-correct" and take the more obvious actions to stop the spreading of this deadly disease. Rick Perry also added that doing so now would be "a little premature," though the closing of the US border is still an option. With Texas being so close to Mexico, the place holding the most Swine-Flu victims, many Texas residents can already forsee the situation getting out of control. I know I do.

Today when I make my weekly Wal-mart visit I will be picking up extra hand sanitizer. I will most certainly be using it on everything now.