A Texas woman with the H1N1 flu died earlier this week, state health officials said, the second death outside Mexico, where the epidemic appeared to be waning.
Officials said on Tuesday the woman, who was in her 30s, had chronic health problems. US health officials have predicted that the new virus would spread and inevitably kill some people, just as seasonal flu does.
Last week a Mexican toddler visiting Texas also died. Mexican officials have reported 29 confirmed deaths.
The WHO was monitoring the spread of the virus and said 21 countries had reported 1,490 cases. The US has 403 confirmed cases in 38 states, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, with another 700 “probable” cases. Canada has reported 165 cases.
“Those numbers will go up, we anticipate, and unfortunately there are likely to be more hospitalizations and more deaths,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.
Health officials said the outbreak seemed to be slowing in Mexico, the country hardest-hit by the virus, which is a mixture of swine viruses and elements of human and bird flu. At the same time, infections were breaking out globally.
An aircraft carrying 97 Chinese stranded in Mexico by the flu scare was expected to arrive in Shanghai late yesterday and all on board appeared healthy, state media said.
“Doctors are monitoring the passengers’ health,” Xinhua news agency quoted China Southern airline as saying, describing them as being “in normal condition.”
An AeroMexico plane arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday to repatriate dozens of Mexicans who had become pawns in a drama about how far governments should go to stifle fears that the H1N1 virus could cross their borders.
None of the 43 Mexicans that Beijing quarantined had shown symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus, prompting Mexico to accuse China of discrimination.
China denied the allegation, saying isolation was the correction procedure.
Trade skirmishes over pork also worsened, with some countries imposing new restrictions, despite assurances by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that pork, especially cooked pork, was safe to eat.
US and Canadian pig and pork exports have been hit by bans from Russia to Ecuador that rattled the US$26 billion-a-year global pork industry, in which Mexico, the US and Canada are among top exporters.
The question remained how far the virus would spread and how serious would it be. The WHO remained at pandemic alert level 5, meaning a pandemic could be imminent.
If it continues to spread outside the Americas, the WHO would likely move to phase 6, a full pandemic alert. This would prompt countries to activate pandemic plans, distribute antiviral drugs and antibiotics and perhaps advise people to take other precautions like limiting large gatherings.
Meanwhile, top health officials from 13 Asian countries were scheduled to meet in Thailand this week to try to forge a common front in the fight against the virus, the meeting’s chairman said yesterday.
Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque is to serve as chairman of the meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Bangkok tomorrow, as the world’s most populous continent tries to keep a lid on H1N1.
Health ministers from the 10-member ASEAN and their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea will “compare our pandemic flu preparedness,” Duque told reporters in Manila.
The ministers are to review surveillance systems in place at ports of entry and measures to prevent the spread of the virus, he said.
They will also be looking at how health workers can be protected and the capacity of hospitals, he said.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
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