Flu outbreak unnerves Mexico City's hardy residents

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Widespread outbreak of a deadly new flu worried Mexico City's usually unflappable residents on Friday, people hardened by violent crime, choking pollution and the threat of deadly earthquakes.

The Mexican government said a previously unknown type of swine flu in central Mexico killed at least 16 people, most of them in the capital, and may be responsible for 45 other deaths.

The news touched off a wave of unease in the sprawling capital of about 20 million people, where the flu closed schools for the first time since a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed approximately 10,000 people.

Jittery residents cleared pharmacies of surgical masks and some wore them in the street, while people with flu symptoms jammed clinics and hospital emergency rooms.

"You have to take precautions. It looks like something that's not out of control, but we'll have to see what happens over the next few days," said Raul Gutierrez, his face covered with a surgical mask as he headed to a clinic.

The government warned people not to shake hands or kiss when greeting or share food, glasses or cutlery.

Mexico City's notoriously heavy traffic was noticeably lighter, particularly around schools and universities.

"We're frightened because they say its not exactly flu, it's another kind of virus and we're not vaccinated," said Angeles Rivera, 34, a secretary for a federal government office who had to fetch her son from a public nursery school that was closing.

Mexicans were already anxious about a severe economic slowdown and spiraling turf wars between rival drug trafficking cartels that have killed nearly 2,000 people so far this year.

Mexico City is built on a former lake bed ringed by mountains. Its long-suffering residents put up with sinking buildings, a mustard-hued haze of pollution made worse by the high-altitude thin air and a constant threat of armed assault.

City dwellers have also been hit this year by a water supply crisis, due to depleted reservoirs.

City officials asked residents to remain calm as they prepared to launch an emergency flu vaccination plan.

Some played down the flu threat.

"It's not that big a deal. The crime we live with 365 days a year is more worrying. This is something that will pass," shop manager Edward Vilchis said.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich, Mica Rosenberg, Anahi Rama, Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Cyntia Barrera Diaz; Writing by Robert Campbell; Editing by Catherine Bremer)