This means that when a bug strikes Argentina it is met by a health system whose officials talk to each other

infrequently, have different objectives, and dip into pots of cash of widely varying size. For example, Santa Cruz, an
oil-rich province in Patagonia, spends eight times more per head on health care than Corrientes, in the poor northeast, according to Daniel Maceira, a health economist. On July 6th several of the needier provincial health ministers
were promised a bit more federal help to fight the flu.
Esto significa o quiere decir que cuando un virus ataca argentina encuentra con un sistema de salud cuyos
funcionarios dialogan con poca frecuencia, tienen diferentes objsetivos y una inversion de dinero en efectivo de
dimensiones diferentes o variables. Por ejemplo, Santa cruz una provincia rica en petroleo en la patagonia, gasta
ocho veces mas en atencion sanitaria o atencion en salud que corrientes, en el noroeste pobre, segun Daniel
maceira, un economista en salud. El 6 de julio a muchos ministros de salud de provincias necesitadas se les
prometio un poco mas de ayuda para combatir la gripe.
A second factor that may have made things worse in Argentina is that the government may have been slow to
respond. Some doctors accuse it of deliberately downplaying the outbreak until after a mid-term election on June
28th. The health minister resigned because her request to delay the election was denied (though she waited until
after the vote to go). An advisory committee of medical experts assembled by the government has called for a
national health emergency to be declared, but that has not yet happened.
The accusation of time-wasting may in fact be unfair. But Argentines have come to mistrust the authorities. Under
Cristina Fernndez, the president, and her predecessor and husband, Nstor Kirchner, they have become
accustomed to the government fiddling economic statistics, such as inflation and growth rates.
Rightly or wrongly, many seem to believe that officials have understated the number of people who have gone down
with flu (which might be an alternative explanation for the seemingly high death rate). This week panicked Argentines
travelled to Chile and Uruguay in droves to buy drugs such as Tamiflu, despite the government's insistence that it
would ensure there are sufficient stocks.
Chile's response seems to have been swifter, better co-ordinated and more decisive. On the same day that the World
Health Organisation raised the alert about swine flu back in April, Michelle Bachelet, Chile's president, gathered a
committee of experts to discuss the threat. It may have helped that Ms Bachelet is a medical doctor by profession.
Argentina's halting reaction could affect the economy. Miguel Kiguel, a consultant, reckons that swine flu could shave
0.5% off GDP between July and the start of spring, in September. Theatres have closed down for ten days, the first
time they have all gone dark since 1918 when Spanish flu swept the world. Brazil's government has urged its citizens
not to visit Argentina. Flights from Brazil to Bariloche, a Patagonian ski resort, have been cancelled. Unluckily for the
town's winter sports, swine flu is expected to die down only when the snow melts.
From the print edition: The Americas