MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexico swine flu spreads overseas - Alert in airports

A thermal camera monitors the body temperature of passengers arriving from overseas against the possible infection of the swine flu

Mexico has raised the probable death toll from an outbreak of swine flu to 81, including 20 already confirmed.

Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said on Saturday that since April 13, “there have been 81 registered deaths which are probably linked to the virus of which only 20 cases have virological checks.”

A total of 1,324 patients with flu symptoms were under investigation, Cordova told a news conference after meeting with health officials from across the country.

Public and private schools in Mexico City and neighbouring Mexico state which were closed as a precaution on Friday would remain shut until Wednesday, May 6, he added.

Schools would also close in San Luis Potosi, the third most affected area, in central Mexico, Cordova said.

Two of Mexico's main football games, one of them in the capital's giant Aztec Stadium, will be played without spectators on Sunday to avoid large crowds.

Tests by the WHO on Friday showed the virus from 12 of the Mexican patients was the same genetically as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in the US patients, AFP reported.

Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, issued the emergency decree on Saturday giving the government special powers to run tests on sick people and order them isolated to fight the deadly flu crisis.

The decree, published in Mexico's official journal, gives the government power to isolate sick people, enter homes or workplaces and regulate air, sea and land transportation to try to stop further infection.

WHO warning

Earlier on Saturday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of a multi-strain swine flu a “public health emergency”.

Margaret Chan, the WHO chief, described the outbreak as “serious” and called on countries to “increase vigilance” following the discovery of related strains on both sides of the Mexico-US border.

Chan said how the situation would evolve was “unpredictable” but that it could have has “pandemic potential”.

An emergency committee of the WHO met in Geneva on Saturday to oversee the agency's handling of the outbreak.

US cases

At least two cases of the human swine influenza have been confirmed in Kansas and one more in California, bringing the US total to 11.

At least eight more cases are suspected in students at a New York City high school, but health officials said on Saturday they don't know whether they have the same virus that has killed scores of people in Mexico.

Kansas health officials said on Saturday they had confirmed swine flu in a married couple living in the central part of the state after the husband visited Mexico.

The couple were not hospitalised, and the state described their illnesses as mild.

The man traveled to Mexico last week for a professional conference and became ill after he returned home.

His wife became ill later. Their doctor suspected swine flu, but it wasn't confirmed until flu specimens were flown to the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

At least nine swine flu cases also have been reported in California and Texas. The new California case, the seventh there, was a 35-year-old woman who was hospitalised but recovered.

New York health officials said more than 100 students at the private St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, had come down with a fever, sore throat and other aches and pains in the past few days. Some of their relatives also have been ill.

New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said nose and throat swabs had confirmed that eight students had influenza type A, indicating probable cases of swine flu, but the exact subtypes were still unknown.

Samples had been sent to the CDC for more testing. Results were expected on Sunday.

UK case

AN air steward was rushed to hospital with “flu-like symptoms” after landing at Heathrow from Mexico, as fears of a global pandemic grew late last night.

The unnamed air steward fell ill on British Airways flight BA242 from Mexico City.

He was last night being treated in Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow. A spokesman said: “He's responding well to treatment.

”The patient was admitted directly to a side room and the hospital is scrupulously following infection control procedures to ensure there is no risk to any other individual.”

Vaccination campaign

US officials said the White House was closely following the outbreak in the United States and Barack Obama, the president, has been informed.

The officials said the virus in the United States was a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans.

Armando Ahued, Mexico City's health minister, said a massive vaccination campaign was being launched against the illness.

Franc Contreras, reporting for Al Jazeera from Mexico City, said the authorities had advised people not to go outside unless necessary and that many residents had bought surgical masks in an attempt to avoid the disease.

The WHO said it had activated its global epidemic operations centre, which oversees acute public health events in response to the crisis.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said the A/H1N1 influenza identified in at least two of the recent cases by US counterparts could certainly develop into a pandemic-type virus.

Human outbreaks of H1N1 swine influenza virus were recorded in the US in 1976 and 1988, when two deaths were recorded, and also in 1986, while in 1988 a pregnant woman died after contact with sick pigs, the WHO said.

In recent years the global focus for a possible pandemic has shifted to the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has spread from poultry to humans and killed 257 of the 421 people infected by the virus since 2003.