Locals with Mexico ties try to assess risk, check on loved ones
Her parents might prefer she return home to Naperville, but Mariska Bolyanatz is staying put in the sleepy Mexican town she's called home for eight months.
The 23-year-old Fulbright scholar is teaching English at a university in Lerma, about 30 minutes west of Mexico City - the epicenter of the growing swine flu outbreak. Since Mexican authorities shuttered schools for the next week, Bolyanatz is spending a lot of time indoors.
"Nobody really knows how long this is going to last or how serious it is going to become," Bolyanatz said via e-mail. "It was all over the news, so I found myself sufficiently nervous."
Still, despite reduced public transportation, Bolyanatz finds many people are going about their normal activities. Out grocery shopping Sunday night, she estimated about half the people wearing face masks, particularly store employees. She's heard they're sold out everywhere.
Aside from staying at home, her Fulbright contacts have recommended she prepare her own food. Bolyanatz is also washing her hands regularly, avoiding large gatherings and being more aware of sick people around her.
The mood is different in Mexico City, where fellow Fulbright scholar Caley McIntyre, 26, is studying the health care system. The Northwestern University student said little is happening in the usually chaotic metropolis of more than 20 million people, as everything from schools to soccer stadiums to Starbucks shops are closed for the week.
"The normally crowded buses and subway are half-empty, the street vendors are considerably fewer, and a large percentage of the people who are outside wear hospital masks and seem unusually hurried to get from place to place," McIntyre, a Rockford-area native, said in an e-mail.
The global swine flu scare won't cause Cristina Torres of Hanover Park to cancel her vacation. Despite U.S. health officials' recommendation to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico, Torres said she'll leave as planned Friday for a week in Guadalajara, the country's second busiest city.
"I was a little worried, but everything seems contained to Mexico City," Torres said, adding she'll take extra precautions such as staying away from restaurants and crowds.
Mundelein police Sgt. Fred Kliora, a Mexican native, spoke with an aunt in Mexico City over the weekend who said the schools were closing because of a flu outbreak. He didn't then know the illnesses were about to become an international news story.
"It hadn't really surfaced yet," Kliora said. He's now checking in with other relatives to make sure they're OK.
Maria Spielberger, a programmer and Spanish translator at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, has friends and family in Mexico City but isn't overly concerned about their health or the flu outbreak.
She's spoken to them since the swine flu news broke, and one friend said the media is overplaying the seriousness of the problem. Another said the people who've died are poor and tried home remedies before seeking medical care - but by then it was too late.
Spielberger, a Mexico native who lives in Wauconda, said her friends are taking precautions like avoiding big crowds.
"People are going about their business without any worries," she said.
• Staff writers Robert Sanchez, Russell Lissau and Phil Collins contributed to this report.