Friday May 1, 04:50 AM
IDB Mexico loan to tackle swine flu, economy
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Inter-American Development Bank announced Thursday it would approve three billion dollars in loans for Mexico to fight the effects of the swine flu and the global economic crisis.
Mexico "is confronting these challenges in an effective, timely and transparent way," said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno in a statement.
To support those efforts, the Bank "will expand the resources for a series of programs in our pipeline and we will speed up disbursements," he said.
The effects of the swine flu crisis "could worsen Mexico's contraction, adding to the economic slowdown caused by decreases in remittances and exports," the IDB statement read.
The IDB "will support programs designed to defend the progress Mexico made against poverty in recent years."
Mexico on Thursday sharply raised its number of confirmed flu cases to 312, including 12 deaths, as many citizens prepared to spend the May Day holiday at home to prevent the spread of the virus.
Mexico City, considered "ground zero" for the H1N1 virus that is now bordering on a global pandemic, shuttered shops and restaurants were testament to authorities' clampdown on spaces that could pass on the contagion.
The World Bank earlier announced that it had already delivered 25 million dollars of a 205 million dollar loan to Mexico to help buy medicine and supplies necessary to fight the swine flu epidemic.
"We are following through on financial support to immediately make funds available to the Mexican authorities to fight H1N1 flu," said Keith Hansen, World Bank Sector Manager for Health in the Latin America and the Caribbean.
The IDB also said it is giving Mexico a one million dollar grant "to support efforts to detect new cases, strengthen epidemiological surveillance systems and carry out information and operational campaigns."
And the IDB also said it has launched a five-million-dollar initiative, along with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), to help Central American countries "strengthen their early alert and diagnostic mechanisms to prevent the spread of the swine flu and other infectious diseases."
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