Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said on Monday, April 27 that 1,995 people had been hospitalized with swine flu across the country, while 149 people were believed to have died of this pandemic disease.
Among the 1,995 people, Minister Cordova disclosed, 776 people are still in serious condition, while 1,070 others have been discharged after treatment. As a new preventive measure, he further noted, the Mexican government ordered the cancellation of school activities at all levels across the country though May 6.
Peter Cordingley, the spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO), said the "new virus was spreading quickly in Mexico and the southern United States, and it could be expected to turn up" on a big scale.
For a number of consecutive days, cases of swine influenza have been reportedly occurring in quite a few countries, but no case outside Mexico has proven fatal. The spread of swine flu, nevertheless, has warranted the attention of the international community, and countries around the globe have taken control measures one after another to contain its spread.
POTENTIAL PANDEMIC SPREADING WORLDWIDE
US health officials said Monday that there are now up to 40 cases of swine flu in five U.S. states and they have released 25 percent of a federal drugs stockpile to states fighting swine flu.
Briefing reporters at a news conference in Atlanta on Monday, Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDE), said that 20 cases were confirmed due entirely to further testing in New York at a school in Queens, bring the New York total to 28.
The unique strain of swine influenza suspected of killing nearly 150 people in Mexico and spread rapidly to other countries is of "the most serious concern" to the international community, including the United Nations," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters on Monday.
"We are concerned that this virus could cause a new influenza pandemic," he said in a statement read to the press in New York. "It could be mild, in its effects, or potential severe."
Six patients in Canada have been confirmed and another 17 people are suspected of having the disease. "The swine flu symptoms seen in Canada have thankfully been relatively mild and the patients are recovering," Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told a press conference in Ottawa with regard to testing for patients with flu-like symptoms who had recently been to Mexico.
Spanish authorities have confirmed by midday Monday, April 27, a 23-year-old male student who returned from a trip to Mexico last week to be Europe's first case of swine flu. Another 19 people with flu-like symptoms have also returned from their trip to Mexico.
In Britain, two Scottish holidaymakers were tested positive for the deadly virus and, in Germany, the first group of swine flu patients were spotted in the city of Bielefeld in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In Israel, a 26-year-old man was hospitalized on Sunday at the Laniado Hospital in Netanyahu after returning from Mexico with signs of flu. This first-ever victim in the whole Middle East has been isolated, and doctors are trying to determine whether he has been infected with the swine flu virus.
URGENT SURVEILLANCE, INTERCEPTIONS
As part of a national endeavor to keep swine virus away from Japan, Narita International Airport in Tokyo has tightened checks on passengers arriving from Mexico, according to a decision made by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
Russia banned imports of all meat not treated thermally from the Mexico, and Texas, California and Kansas in the U.S., and raw pork imports from eight other U.S. States, and Central American and the Caribbean nations.
The Chilean government announced that passengers or travelers from the U.S., and Mexico have to take their temperatures and undergo chest x-ray. In Argentine, health department officials are now on high alert and the related measures have been taken at international airports and airliners mainly to cope with travelers from Mexico and the U.S.
JOINT EFFORTS FOR SWINE FLU CONTROL AND RESEAARCHES
Governments worldwide have beefed up or increased their input to deal with swine flu virus. The World Bank has lent Mexico 25 million US dollars to assist with its fight against the flu virus.
British Secretary of State for Health Alan Johnson told BBC1's the Public Show he had no doubt that there would be more cases of travelers coming into UK with flu-like symptoms. But he said that, so far, no cases of swine flu have been reported in UK. The British Department of Health has a stockpile of more than 500 million pounds worth of the tamiflu anti-viral drug which has proven effective on patients in Mexico, he said.
New antivirus drugs are now available in advanced countries, and Canada has prepared 55 million injections of anti-virus drugs.
In another development, the Japanese government called a cabinet meeting on the morning of April 27 and decided to speed up the establishment of the entry-exit inspection and quarantine regulations and work out other measures in response to swine flu.
During a new briefing on the swine flu outbreak at the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 26, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared a public health emergency Sunday amid an outbreak of 20 confirmed cases of swine flu.
The Spanish government has decided to set up a special commission to track clusters of flu illness and share the information regarding the H1N1 influenza virus.
Butler Jones, chief public health officer of Canada's Public Health Agency, however, said:"We will likely see more cases. We will likely see more severe illness and we will likely, unfortunately, see more death as well."
By People's Daily Online and contributed by some PD overseas resident reporters
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