news World Health Organization says U.S. flu victims may be infecting others

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World Health Organization says U.S. flu victims may be infecting others



2 hours, 44 minutes ago





By Andrew Selsky, The Associated Press


MEXICO CITY - The swine flu epidemic crossed new borders Tuesday with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as the World Health Organization said it suspects American patients may have transmitted the virus to others in the United States.

Most people confirmed with the new swine flu were infected in Mexico, where the number of deaths blamed on the virus has surpassed 150.

But confirmation that people had become infected outside Mexico would indicate that the disease was spreading beyond travellers returning from the country, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

Hartl said the source of some infections in the United States, Canada and Britain was unclear.

Hartl said WHO was waiting for U.S. authorities to announce that a number of students at a New York high school have passed the virus on to one another after their return from a spring vacation in Mexico. "I think we might have one other instance in the U.S.," he said.

Pressed by reporters to elaborate, he declined, saying it was up to U.S. authorities to provide further information.

Possible scenarios include students getting infected who did not travel to Mexico, or students who travelled there but became infected only after returning to the United States, or family members getting infected from returning students.

WHO calls this "community transmission" and says it's a key test for gauging whether the spread of the virus has reached pandemic proportions. The swine flu has already spread to at least six countries besides Mexico, prompting WHO officials to raise its alert level Monday.

"At this time, containment is not a feasible option," said Keiji Fukuda, assistant director general of the United Nations' agency.

WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission causing outbreaks in at least one country. WHO's pandemic alert system was revised after bird flu in Asia began to spread in 2004. Monday was the first time it has ever been raised above Phase 3.

Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States or elsewhere. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States.

But the new flu strain is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses that humans may have no natural immunity to.

Tuesday, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard ordered gyms, sports clubs, swimming pools and pool halls closed - extending a growing shutdown that already included schools, state-run theatres and other public places.

The city was evaluating whether to keep open its subway system.

New Zealand reported Tuesday that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico contracted the virus. Tests conducted at a WHO laboratory in Australia had confirmed three cases of swine flu among 11 members of the group who were showing symptoms, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said.

Officials decided that was evidence enough to assume the whole group was infected, he said.

Israel's Health Ministry confirmed Tuesday the region's first swine flu case in the city of Netanya. The patient, 26, recently returned from Mexico and had contracted it. A hospital official said the patient had recovered, but will remain hospitalized until the Health Ministry approves his release.

Meanwhile, a second case was confirmed Tuesday in Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said, a day after the country reported its first case. The 23-year-old student, one of 26 patients under observation, was not in serious condition, Jimenez said.

With the virus spreading, the U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned Americans to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico.

"We anticipate that there will be confirmed cases in more states as we go through the coming days," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday.

Countries, including Canada, Israel and France, warned their citizens Tuesday to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico. The European Union health commissioner suggested that Europeans avoid non-essential travel also to parts of the United States. Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus.

Mexico, where the number of deaths believed caused by swine flu rose by 50 per cent Monday to 152, is suspected to be the centre of the outbreak. But Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova late Monday said no one knows where the outbreak began, and implied it may have started in the U.S.

"I think it is very risky to say, or want to say, what the point of origin or dissemination of it is, given that there had already been cases reported in southern California and Texas," Cordova told a press conference.