“but can somebody explain why this is considered more of a public health concern than other kinds of flu?”
Well the mortality rate in Mexico is about 6%.
The Spanish Flu of 1918 (the worst on record), to contrast, killed 1%.
How do you know the mortality rate in Mexico is 6%? In order to know that, you’d first have to know how many total cases there are in Mexico and I’ll bet you anything you want to bet that that number is orders of magnitude higher than the 2000 or so being reported.
If there were only 2000 or so cases in Mexico then how in the hell do all of those vistors to Mexico from other parts of the world seem to be bringing it back home from there? It would be a mathmatical impossibility that only 2000 infected Mexicans would so easily infect many visitors to Mexico without large numbers of Mexicans living there being infected.
If the truth about the total number of infections were to be reported, then the mortality rate would be revealed to be extremely low (like normal human influenza) and the media/government would no longer have a story.