Two Towns, Divided by a Border -- and by Perception of Risk in Outbreak
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04...
By Karl Vick
April 30, 2009
CALEXICO, Calif. -- It's a border, not a barrier, yet the money-changers on the Mexican side wear rubber gloves and face masks. And 50 feet to the
north, Raul Martinez changes pesos into dollars with his bare hands, and not a stitch covering a smile that turns rueful when he's asked why.
"I don't know why," said Martinez, 58, chuckling at either his bravery or his delusion as the reality of the border in the time of swine flu comes
home: "It's the same air!"
Calexico and Mexicali, its neighbor to the south, blend as charmingly as their names, two towns in two countries separated by an international
boundary but united by much more, at least under normal circumstances. But with the emergence of a virulent strain of influenza deeper in Mexico, a
border population that moves daily between the countries has begun to act as though people are simply safer on the American side, complicating efforts
to contain the outbreak, according to public health specialists.
The risks were made clear Wednesday when a Mexican child became the first fatality in the United States. The 23-month-old infant fell ill while
visiting relatives in Brownsville, Tex., on one side of a border that roughly 600,000 people cross on a typical day, south to north.
Both Sides at Equal Risk
In Washington, lawmakers in both parties called Wednesday for tighter border controls, including possibly closing parts of it. Senior government
health and security officials insisted that doing so would have "marginal" medical value because the virus has already spread across the United
States. Nevertheless, the panel's chairman, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.). warned the Obama administration to consider tighter checks, such as on
Mexican temporary workers, "because I think if you don't, there will be growing pressure to really close the ports of entry."
More than 40,000 people file into the United States from Mexicali every day, the third-highest-volume crossing point after San Ysidro, Calif., south
of San Diego and El Paso. Customs and Border Patrol officials say they have detected no slackening since the U.S. government advised against
"nonessential" travel to Mexico.
Most people who cross make a round trip daily, rotating in and out of the downtown U.S. border station that on the Calexico side pedestrians approach
on a plaza shaped like a circle.
"I'm on my way to school," said Jennifer Talamamtes, 11, a sixth-grader at Rockwood Elementary in Calexico. Born on the American side, she had spent
the night with her grandmother in Mexicali, where more people were wearing the surgical mask she was only half-wearing, tucked under her chin.
"Everyone's laughing at me" on the U.S. side, she said. "Everyone says that there's more sick people in Mexico than in California."
There are, but on the border the constant traffic makes the distinction largely irrelevant to health officials. "Pathogens do not recognize the
geopolitical boundaries established by human beings," noted a 2003 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report establishing a cross-border
disease surveillance program. The report noted that data across the 1990s found increased risks for "certain foodborne, waterborne, and
vaccine-preventable diseases" in U.S. counties within 60 miles of the border, compared with non-border states.
And indeed, the five swine flu cases confirmed in Imperial County, which contains Calexico, is one more than reportedly found in Mexicali, a city of
900,000. Perhaps more significantly, county health officer Stephen W. Munday noted that none of the five -- nor the five confirmed through Tuesday in
neighboring San Diego County -- had recently visited Mexico.
The implication, Munday said, was that the bug came from carriers in the immediate area.
"What's important for those living on the border is to consider those living in Mexico as part of their community, or at least as part of their
potentially contagious community," said Manoj Jain, a Memphis physician who specializes in infectious disease. "If they're interacting with a
community of 50,000 that's going back and forth, then they're as much at risk as people living in Mexico."
'Desensitized'
Normally, locals say, the tendency runs the other way -- toward forgetting the border.
"You and I will see this border as an international border," said John Campos, a Border Patrol agent who grew up in the area. "Local people, because
they use it every single day, will get desensitized."
"That's exactly the word!" said fellow agent Catherine Carrillo. "I've had to tell someone who thought it was okay he forgot his ID: 'Sir, you're
crossing into Mexico. It's another country.' "
On the Mexicali side, a private bus service named Transportes Intercalifornias runs from Baja California to Los Angeles and eight inland cities. On
the U.S. side, the Imperial Valley News lists "Border Wait Times" on its Web site right next to "Movie Times."
The commute starts at 3 a.m., with farm workers filing through border control and onto buses. About 7 a.m., the kids start flowing, many in the
uniforms of Calexico's three private schools, which happily accept students from Mexicali "as long as you can pay the tuition," said Billy Whitford,
port director of the Calexico checkpoint.
The shoppers come next, legions who, when asked their business in the United States, tell the border agent, "Wal-Mart." At the new "Super Center" on
the edge of Calexico, the greeter speaks no English.
"In this case, this trip to the U.S. is important, because my cousin is going back to Guadalajara tomorrow," said Gloria Velarde, gesturing to the man
to her left.
Fernando Najar, 47, pulled the mask from his face and explained: "Some perfumes and other gifts to take back to the family."
"Everything is essential here. That's something I didn't understand until I got here," said Carrillo, who grew up in Pennsylvania and met her
husband-to-be on vacation in Ensenada. Now she has a border family, her stepchildren waiting until their father gets citizenship to come north, but
far from feeling in limbo living so close to a border where, Carrillo said, "everybody knows everybody."
Yet, with the sudden appearance of swine flu, the boundary appears to be amplifying the nations' starkly differing responses to epidemic. Mexico has
taken dramatic steps. The more reassuring tone struck by U.S. officials may be working too well in Calexico.
"I think I'll scare people away if I start wearing a mask and gloves," said Edward Lopez, at his money-exchange counter on the side.
"There's not enough cases here to get worried," said Naveteze Gomezllanos, who runs an exchange office around the corner. "It's mostly in Mexico.
Mexico City. And in New York. They say if you wash your hands, if you don't put your hands in your mouth, you're okay."
When residents of Mexicali arrive, some take on the same dubious sense of reassurance. As she approached the U.S. checkpoint Tuesday morning, a
middle-aged Mexican woman pulled the cloth mask from around her neck and stuffed it into her purse.
"They all do," said border agent Pablo Rucubo, watching from nearby. "Defeats the whole purpose."
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