MEXICO CITY — A rare outbreak of human swine flu has killed 60 people in Mexico and has spread to the United States where authorities are on alert, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.
Mexican authorities on Friday closed all schools in the capital and central Mexico. According to the UN health agency, swine flu regularly hits pigs but rarely humans.
"To date there have been some 800 suspected cases with flu-like illness, with 57 deaths in the Mexico City area," said Ms Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the UN health agency. Three deaths were recorded in San Luis Potosi in central Mexico.
In a televised statement, Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova urged people to avoid large crowds, shaking hands, kissing as a greeting, or using the subway.
Most of the Mexican cases were found in healthy young adults with no known record of prior illness. The Mexican government has gathered 600,000 vaccines to help protect health care workers.
Warning that swine influenza — which combines pig, bird and human viruses — could potentially cause a human flu pandemic, the WHO said there are at least seven cases in the United States, in three clusters - five in California and two in Texas.
All the US victims have recovered, but the cases are a medical mystery because it's unclear how they caught the virus.
None of the seven were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu and only a few were in contact with each other, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses in pigs, because pigs are particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu. Agencies
From TODAY, World – Weekend, 25/56-April-2009
No comments:
Post a Comment