Mainstream media was a-buzz all weekend with news that a flu originating in swine had broken out in Mexico, killing some 60 people and making several people sick stateside. The SF Chronicle reports:

California doctors and other health experts are on the lookout for cases of a new strain of swine flu, a potentially dangerous virus that has reignited fears of a pandemic flu outbreak after killing about 60 people in Mexico and sickening eight people in the United States.

Hospitals and public health departments throughout California, where six of the American cases have been found, were told Friday to increase surveillance of the rare strain of flu that combines genetic material from humans, pigs and birds.

Today it appears that the death toll has risen to 81 in Mexico, and all public events in Mexico City have been cancelled for fear of the disease spreading from person to person, which is apparently how the flu gets around (not from consumption of pork). Kissing has also been banned, as has all other “close contact”.

The World Health Organization is calling the swine flu “public health emergency of international concern,” and international it is proving to be. In addition to the 11 confirmed cases in the U.S., some 10 more were just confirmed in New Zealand, where 10 teachers had returned there from a trip to Mexico via Los Angeles.

Latino blogger Daniel Hernández is following the developments from Mexico City on his blog, Intersections. Check it out.

On the other side, many right wing media outlets are declaring the epidemic a bioterrorism attack. And, as is to be expected, there are quite a few anti-immigrant voices who link the flu to undocumented immigrants:

Back in Mexico, most people are panicking, while others are making the best of a bad situation.

Via / SFGate and CNN