Let's talk about anger, without anger?

By Claudia Pérez Atamoros

The RAE defines...

1. intr. To suffer or have rabies (disease).

2. intr. To desire something vehemently.

3. intr. to become impatient or angry with displays of anger and rage.

4. intr. to exceed by far the usual and ordinary.

It exceeds the usual and the ordinary. Mexico is a rabid country in so many ways. It is not for nothing that we are a surreal nation. We have a heavy weight and at the same time we are the most dangerous territory in the world to work as journalists. A lawless nation, a narco-state; and yet... The Center for Economic and Business Research, CEBR, a London-based consultancy, announced last month that Mexico ranks 15th in the world economy. Celebrate? With hugs or bullets? Spoiler alert, with firecrackers! To hell with pets.

Injustices and shamelessness make us impatient and angry. Mexico is angry. Colosio saw "a country with hunger and thirst for justice". It is still the same. Literally. According to the National Institute of Public Security, in 2021 "at least 60.8% of Mexican households presented some type of food insecurity, that is, concern about access to food or even some member of the family stopped eating due to lack of resources to acquire food." Shortage of medicines. The #MinistraPirata.

We wish with vehemence. We defend our ideals fiercely. The networks are flooded with rage. Rightly and wrongly. Mexicans are angry. AMLO arrived and the country is infected with rage. Some are foaming at the mouth, others are biting with wild eyes, some are withdrawing. Rage is on the loose. All reject the light. Abortionists all from one nation. No dialogue. Many bites. More, many more bullets than hugs. No one leads by example. Well, not even a thesis advisor can be trusted anymore. By the way, the Martas transmit rage.

How then are we, since 2019, the first country in the world to receive validation by the World Health Organization for having eliminated rabies? They talk about rabies in dogs and as a public health problem! The mental one is not mentioned, obviously. Certified by #NotarioCarnal.

But...

In 2022, there were four cases of human rabies, three in Oaxaca and one in Nayarit. The first three (infants) acquired it through the bite of a hematophagous bat; the fourth through a cat scratch. Another similar case had happened in 2021 (Jalisco), after not registering a single case of this disease in our country since 2005, according to data from the Ministry of Health, which in 2021 administered 194.6 million doses of vaccines to prevent the disease.

In 99% of human rabies cases, the virus is transmitted by domestic dogs; however, the disease affects both domestic and wild animals and is transmitted to carnivores through bites or scratches. Birds are susceptible but are not transmitters.

The only rabies-free continent is Antarctica; in the rest of the world, including our country and the certification it holds, the virus exists and circulates among wildlife. Controllable in domestic animals, but very difficult to eradicate in nature.

Thanks to WHO data, it is known that almost 40% of rabies cases in the world are in children under 15 years of age and it is estimated that 8.6 billion dollars are spent annually on prophylaxis. Unfortunately, in Mexico, two of the three children infected with rabies in Oaxaca have died.

What a rage!

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