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| English: Entrance to the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Español: La entrada de la sede de los Centros para el Control y Prevención de Enfermedades (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
CHENGDU, China (AFP) - - A first case of swine flu was confirmed in mainland China on Monday, underlining the outbreak's global spread, as the United States soared ahead of Mexico in terms of infections.
The world toll had passed 50 at the weekend after Costa Rica reported its first fatality from the virus, officially known as A(H1N1) influenza, and the United States confirmed a third death.
Mexican authorities, however, upped their fatalities by another eight on Monday to 56. These deaths were still to be confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
China's first mainland case involved a man who had recently returned from the US. The 30-year-old was hospitalised after arriving in the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu, in southwestern China.
"This is our country's first case of A(H1N1)," Chinese health ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said.
State television said the man, surnamed Bao and in a stable condition, flew from Tokyo to Beijing on a Northwest Airlines flight before connecting on a domestic flight to Chengdu.
The Chinese authorities were in the process of tracking down the 223 Tokyo-Beijing passengers, the health ministry and the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that more than half had been found and were in quarantine.
About 84 of the 150 passengers who travelled on the Sichuan Airlines flight from Beijing to Chengdu -- all Chinese nationals -- had also been quarantined with no apparent symptoms, China Central Television said.
The virus was first reported in Mexico in April, but has spread to more than 30 nations since and the global number of infected cases is heading towards the 5,000 mark.
In response to the outbreak, Beijing has barred direct flights from Mexico and banned imports of Mexican pork.
Relations between China and Mexico soured when scores of Mexicans were put under quarantine after a Mexican who flew to Hong Kong was confirmed with the virus.
The Mexican foreign ministry said Sunday that 14 nationals remained under Chinese quarantine.
Beijing says it wants to avoid "catastrophic consequences" in the world's most populous nation.
Japan also increased follow-up checks with its first four infections and another 48 fellow plane passengers either in hospital or isolated in a hotel for 10 days.
Elsewhere, five new cases of swine flu were reported in Canada, the fourth country to suffer a death from the disease, while another two cases were confirmed in France.
The US, which now has substantially more swine flu patients than Mexico but far fewer fatal infections, said a man in his 30s with an underlying heart condition died from the illness in the northwestern state of Washington.
It was the first US death outside the state of Texas bordering Mexico.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 2,618 cases and that the virus was now present in all states bar Alaska, Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, North Dakota and Wyoming.
The CDC warned of "more cases, more hospitalisations and more deaths because the population has little to no immunity against it."
Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said its infection toll stood at 2,059, with the 56 deaths "equivalent to 2.7 percent of all cases."
Three foreigners -- a Scot and two US citizens -- were among the latest infected. The last two recorded deaths were on May 6.
The flu's impact -- between shutdowns and tourism fall-off -- was expected to cost the economy around 2.3 billion dollars (1.7 billion euros), prompting plans for a fiscal stimulus package.
Most of the 4,694 cases so far confirmed by the WHO have proved to be treatable with anti-viral drugs -- leading the body to defend its decision, taken two weeks ago, to raise pandemic alert levels to "imminent."
"It's often hard to see what you would have prevented by doing so much work... if things turn out that few people die, it would be the best of all possible outcomes," said acting WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda.
No cases have been reported in the Arab world, but a top Muslim cleric in the Gulf emirate of Dubai urged the faithful not to travel to the Saudi holy city of Mecca for the next few weeks and to pray in the open air.
From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.
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