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MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman. This is The World. The H1N1 swine flu virus has now been confirmed in Asia. The sick individual is a Mexican citizen who arrived in Hong Kong yesterday. More than a dozen countries have now been touched by the outbreak, which appears to have begun in Mexico. Yet Mexico provided some good news today. There are signs that the outbreak is slowing. Mexico's Health Minister, Jose Angel Cordova, says it's encouraging that the number of people being hospitalized has declined. He also reported that many patients suspected of having swine flu have not tested positive for the disease. That suggests that the true toll is lower than originally thought, but life remains far from normal for the people of Mexico. The country today began a five-day closure of nonessential businesses and government offices. Many Mexicans are left alone, at home, with their thoughts and anxieties. The World's Lorne Matalon reports from Mexico City.

LORNE MATALON: This city of more than 20 million people is eerily calm. The day begins with a dawn chorus, instead of the sounds of gridlocked traffic. The usual chaos has given way to surreal emptiness.

ARUTRO MENDOZA LOPEZ: This is a city of emptiness.

MATALON: Psychiatrist Arturo Mendoza Lopez has been practicing in Mexico City for 30 years. He says the city's calm contrasts with the emotional turmoil of his patients. He says they're obsessing over the outbreak. Some patients he might see once every two weeks have come in three times this week.

LOPEZ: Human beings don't deal with uncertainty, especially when you're dealing with life and death situations. And when you know that people are dying, so you're concerned that you may be dying soon, so you get very scared. At times people get very – not only anxious, but enraged.

MATALON: Mendoza says people he's seen feel helpless and angry.

MENDOZA: We feel trapped in a situation that we want somebody to get the blame. And we don't find it, except nature. And this is very difficult.

MATALON: One Mexico City resident, Ana Islas, has been hiding out, working from home for the last week.

ANA ISLAS: Everybody is kind of worried because they don't know when this is going to end. Like if we go out on Wednesday or Thursday, is the virus going to be already gone or what?

MATALON: Dr. Mendoza says many Mexicans are not just scared and angry, they feel guilty. They see themselves as responsible for the outbreak that has spread worldwide.

MENDOZA: Although of course we should not feel that way. But, I mean, we don't have a manual to go through. I mean, this is the first time that this happens. And we feel very vulnerable, you know, deeply vulnerable as probably we have never felt in the past.

MATALON: Another psychiatrist says Mexicans may be pre-disposed to intense anxiety. Jorge Garcia Vallenzuela, author of several texts for medical students, says Mexicans are a worried people by nature.

VALLENZUELA: If we have a problem, we worry. Even if we do not have a problem, we still worry. Part of the Mexican psychology is also belief in magic -- and with so much fear of the unknown, Mexicans are just praying for a milagro, a miracle, all the time.

MATALON: Mexicans may be shaken psychologically, but their religious faith seems as strong as ever. Churches are closed, yet every day, people gather outside the locked gates at the city's Main Cathedral to pray. For The World, I'm Lorne Matalon in Mexico City.

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