Poverty, tendency to self-medicate help drive up flu deaths in Mexico

Washington Post, May 5, 2009

Several theories have emerged as to why all but one of the confirmed deaths from swine flu have occurred in Mexico. But a critical factor, according to specialists in the country, is that flu victims have delayed checking into hospitals until their condition has deteriorated so much they cannot be saved. While medicines are plentiful and cheap at Mexican pharmacies, swine flu antiviral medication was often not available or prohibitively expensive.