Swine flu continues to spread

The swine flu epidemic crossed new borders today with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

But health watchdogs said so far only seven confirmed deaths had been identified in Mexico where the toll blamed on the virus has passed 150.

No deaths from the flu have been reported outside the country, but confirmed infections elsewhere indicated that the disease was spreading beyond travellers returning from the country, the World Health Organisation said.

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

The swine flu has already spread to at least six countries besides Mexico, prompting WHO officials to raise its alert level yesterday.

“At this time, containment is not a feasible option,” said Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation.

WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country.

New Zealand said today that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico contracted the virus.

Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed two cases of the flu.

Meanwhile, a second case was confirmed 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.

Fifty cases – none fatal and most of them mild – were confirmed in the United States. Including the New Zealand, Israeli and new Spanish reports, there were 92 confirmed cases worldwide today. That included six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland.

With the virus spreading, the US prepared for the worst. President Barack Obama said the outbreak was “not a cause for alarm,” but the US stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned Americans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico.

The Food and Drug Administration issued emergency guidance that allows certain antiviral drugs to be used in a broader range of the population in case mass dosing is needed to deal with a widespread swine flu outbreak.

The European Union health commissioner suggested that Europeans avoid non-essential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States. Canada warned against non-essential travel to Mexico. 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% yesterday to 152, is suspected to be the centre of the outbreak. But Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said no one knows where the outbreak began, and implied it may have started in the US.

Amid the alarm, there was a spot of good news. The number of new cases reported by Mexico’s largest government hospitals has been declining the past three days, Cordova said, from 141 on Saturday to 119 on Sunday and 110 Monday.