Posted: 28 May 2009 1221 hrs
School children wearing protective masks as a precaution against the H1N1 flu at a train station in Tokyo, Japan
CHICAGO: The global H1N1 flu death toll marched past 100 on Wednesday with one new fatality reported in the United States and four more in Mexico, the two countries where the first outbreaks were reported.
Prior to the latest North American deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had reported the global toll at 95, with 13,398 people in 48 countries infected with the A(H1N1) virus since it was first uncovered last month.
In Chicago, a second H1N1 flu death was reported by officials, bringing the US toll to 15.
Mexico's four fatalities raised the country's toll to 89 with 100 new infections reported, bringing the total to 4,821, the health ministry said.
Activists from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), clad in mock hazmat suit, display placards across the US Embassy in Manila, Philippines during a brief protest
Around the world, efforts to control the disease continued as new cases were discovered.
Two more countries - the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean and South America's Uruguay - each reported their first two confirmed cases of H1N1 flu, raising the number of countries with cases to 50.
Chile confirmed 119 cases late Tuesday, making it by far the South American country most affected by the outbreak. Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador have also reported cases.
In Canada, the number of people infected with H1N1 flu soared past the 1,000 mark with 197 new cases confirmed Wednesday, according to health officials.
Canada now has 1,118 total A(H1N1) cases, including two deaths. The country has the largest number of infections after Mexico and the United States.
Commuters wearing masks as a precaution against the swine flu walk through a station in the morning rush hour in Kobe, western Japan
Elsewhere, services continued to slowly return to something approaching normalcy.
In Mexico, cruise ships began calling at Cozumel after a one-month hiatus.
Australia, meanwhile, slapped tough measures on cruise ships docking in Sydney in a bid to stop the spread of the disease.
Under the new rules, all cruise liners docking in Sydney will be treated as potential H1N1 flu sites and passengers will be held on board until the ship is cleared.
Australia's restrictions came with the A(H1N1) virus spreading further throughout Asia.
But the WHO has so far resisted declaring the disease a full-fledged pandemic.
Thermal imaging equipment which will be used to scan passengers for the influenza A(H1N1) virus at Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport
The outbreak has spread further in Asia, with Singapore confirming its first case and Hong Kong, where Asia's first infection sparked a week-long quarantine of around 300 guests and staff at a city hotel, announced a fresh total of 10.
Japan has seen a rapid rise in confirmed cases, saying Wednesday it had over 350.
In Europe, Romania announced its first confirmed infection in a woman who returned from New York on May 23 with her two young children.
Greece reported its third H1N1 flu case as health officials called a fresh emergency meeting, while stressing the situation was under "complete control."
Besides the human toll, Mexico's economy has taken a deep hit from the virus.
Mexican restaurant owners said that some 6,500 eateries remained definitively closed due to losses made during the H1N1 flu epidemic, shedding more than 55,000 jobs.
Almost half of those forced to close were in the sprawling capital, where the government ordered all restaurants to shut temporarily at the height of the epidemic, the national chamber of the restaurant industry said.
- AFP/yb
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
An Indian nurse wears a surgical mask
GENEVA : The number of confirmed H1N1 flu cases has soared again to top 8,000, the World Health Organisation said Saturday as India and Turkey reported their first infections.
Japan also confirmed its first three infections among teenage students who had not picked up the virus abroad, and officials voiced fears that it would spread in the country.
The number of people killed by the influenza A(H1N1) virus rose to 72, compared with 65 on Friday, with six more in Mexico and one in the United States, the WHO said.
Over the past week the number of people infected by the virus has risen sharply, going up by around 1,000 a day since Monday to reach 8,451 on Saturday.
The United States, followed by Mexico, where the epidemic began some three weeks ago, have recorded the highest number of cases. Two new countries, Ecuador and Peru, have been added to the WHO's official list.
India confirmed its first H1N1 flu case after a 23-year-old man who had flown to Hyderabad from New York tested positive for the virus.
He had returned to India on Wednesday and was quarantined on arrival when he was found to have a fever, the health ministry said in a statement.
He was being treated at an isolation unit and his current condition was described as "afebrile", meaning he was already free from symptoms of the virus that has caused concern around the world.
The Indian health ministry said the patient had changed planes in Dubai and that all passengers who flew on the same plane to India were being contacted.
Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said that his country's first case of H1N1 flu was detected in an American man who had arrived at Istanbul airport, while news reports said later that his wife was also infected.
Akdag said the A(HIN1) virus had been confirmed in blood tests carried out after thermal cameras picked up the fact that the man was running a high fever.
The Iraqi-born US national arrived in Turkey on Thursday on a flight from the United States which had made a stopover in Amsterdam and was on his way to Iraq.
"He was admitted to hospital in Istanbul and placed in quarantine with the six members of his family. His condition is satisfactory," the minister said.
Akdag could not immediately confirm later that the man's wife had also caught the disease, but said it was "quite possible".
Japan confirmed its first three domestic infections Saturday and was testing at least 14 other suspected cases in two cities, officials said.
Health officials were testing five more teenagers from the same school in the western city of Kobe, while another nine students were considered suspected cases in nearby Osaka, officials said.
Prime Minister Taro Aso called on Japanese to stay level-headed and vowed to take steps to prevent a wider outbreak.
But former WHO senior official Shigeru Omi, now head of the government's special H1N1 flu task force, warned: "We believe that the infection is beginning to spread in the region."
Japan had confirmed its first cases of A(H1N1) contracted overseas on May 9, -- a school teacher and three students who flew to Tokyo from Canada via Detroit -- but immediately quarantined them and other passengers.
Another 48 passengers who sat near them on the plane were isolated in a hotel for a week.
But despite those measures Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said Saturday that the virus had slipped into Japan, being detected in a 17-year-old student.
Two of the student's schoolmates, a boy and a girl, were also confirmed as positive for the virus.
Authorities in Kobe said they would temporarily close at least 75 schools and kindergartens and cancel festivals and other public events in some districts of the city, where fear of an outbreak was growing rapidly.
"It's totally beyond our imagination," said Seiichi Sakurai, of the city's health and welfare bureau. "The virus entered the country undetected. I'm afraid the infection may have already spread further."
Sweden also confirmed its third case, detected like the first two in someone who had returned from the United States, authorities said.
At the European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Helsinki, health experts defended Mexico and the WHO in their handling of H1N1 flu.
They said that even though the threat so far had turned out smaller than feared, their measures had placed the world on a stronger footing to combat the virus if it resurges in a more lethal form.
- AFP /ls
School children wearing protective masks as a precaution against the H1N1 flu at a train station in Tokyo, Japan
Activists from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), clad in mock hazmat suit, display placards across the US Embassy in Manila, Philippines during a brief protest
Commuters wearing masks as a precaution against the swine flu walk through a station in the morning rush hour in Kobe, western Japan
Thermal imaging equipment which will be used to scan passengers for the influenza A(H1N1) virus at Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport
