Swine flu casts shadow on Texas border town

By Tony Vindell

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A small Mexican boy crossed into the United States with his family and died, forever changing the Texas border town of Brownsville.

The toddler unknowingly brought with him H1N1 swine flu when he entered on April 4. He took ill four days later and died on Monday, the first person to succumb on U.S. soil.

Brownsville is Texas's most southern city, a place battered by hurricanes and poverty and home to 172,000 people, most of Hispanic origins but born in the United States.

"I will be staying here for a while," said Santiago Perez, 18, from Matamoros, Mexico, who crosses the porous border to attend Pace High School in Brownsville. "Better safe than sorry."

The nearly two-year-old boy was from Mexico City. He died in a Houston hospital, having crossed the border in Brownsville on a trip to visit relatives.

An average of 7,255 people cross the bridge from Mexico each day, many of them drawn to jobs, shops and classes in the city by the banks of the Rio Grande River.

Martin Perez, who crossed from Matamoros on Wednesday to shop at a duty-free shop on Elizabeth Street in downtown Brownsville, wore a surgical mask, and so did his two sons.

CONCERN GROWS