Swine flu spreads to 11 states, 4 continents

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The swine flu outbreak spread to 11 states Wednesday, closing schools amid confirmation of the first U.S. death - a Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization sounded its own ominous alarm, raising its alert level to one notch below a full-fledged global pandemic. Said WHO Director General Margaret Chan: "It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic."

In California, 39 Marines were confined to their base after one came down with the disease.

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Some 100 schools were closed, and more might need to be shut down temporarily, President Barack Obama said, declaring, "This obviously is a serious situation." The total confirmed cases in the U.S. rose to nearly 100, with many more suspected.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta there were confirmed cases in ten states, including 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California. The CDC counted scattered cases in Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.

Texas called off all public high school athletic and academic competitions at least until May 11 due to the outbreak.

State officials in Maine said laboratory tests had confirmed three cases in that state, not yet included in the CDC count.

Late Wednesday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said state health officials believe a Platte County resident probably has contracted the virus and that a sample is being sent for confirmation to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Global impact

In Mexico, where the flu is believed to have originated, officials said Wednesday confirmed swine flu cases have risen to 99, including eight dead.

Mexico's government is temporarily suspending all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business as the number of confirmed swine flu cases jumped.

Health Secretary Jose Cordova says nonessential federal government offices will be closed from May 1-5. He said all nonessential private businesses must also close for that period but essential services like transport, supermarkets, trash collection, hospital will remain open.

Despite calls from many U.S. lawmakers for tightening controls over the Mexico-US border, administration officials ruled out that option.

"Closing our nation's borders is not merited here," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at a mid-afternoon briefing, echoing comments she made earlier in the day while being pressed by senators at a hearing.

Ecuador joined Cuba and Argentina in banning travel either to or from Mexico, and other nations considered similar bans. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy met with cabinet ministers to discuss swine flu, and the health minister said France would ask the European Union to suspend flights to Mexico.

The U.S., the European Union and other countries have discouraged nonessential travel to Mexico. Some countries have urged their citizens to avoid the United States and Canada as well. Health officials said such bans would do little to stop the virus.

A pandemic is an epidemic that has expanded globally. The swine flu has now been reported on four continents.

Germany and Austria became the latest countries to report infections. Germany reported four cases on Wednesday, Austria one case.

New Zealand's total rose to 14. Britain had earlier reported five cases, Spain four. There were 19 cases in Canada and two in Israel.

Treatment

Laboratory testing showed the new virus was treatable by the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, and the first shipments from a federal stockpile arrived Wednesday in New York City and several other locations. The government was shipping to states enough medication to treat 11 million people as a precaution. All states should get their share by May 3.

No shortages had been reported - there was plenty in regular pharmacies, federal health officials said.

The disease is not spread by eating pork and U.S. officials appeared to go out of their way on Wednesday to not call the strain "swine flu." Obama called the bug the "H1N1 virus," and other administration officials followed his lead.

"The disease is not a food-borne illness," Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, CDC's interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.