THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 27. 2009
NEWS
5A
INTERNATIONAL
Swine flu monitored in several countries
Quarantine officers monitor travelers with a thermographic device at an arrival gate at Natalia International Airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, Japan. Asian health authorities were on alert Sunday, with some checking passengers and pink products from Mexico.
BY FRANK JORDANS
Associated Press
GENEVA — Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.
Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases, and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.
The six Canadian cases in Nova Scotia and British Columbia all had links to people who had traveled to Mexico, and all are the same flu strain.
The six people have recovered, said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer.
But "these are probably not the last cases we'll see in Canada," he said.
The news follows the World Health Organization's decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a "public health
emergency of international concern. $ ^{10} $
A senior World Health Organization official said the agency's emergency committee will meet for a second time Tuesday to examine the
"Right now we have cases occurring in a couple different countries and in multiple locations."
KEIJI FUKUDA WHO assistant director
spread of the virus before deciding whether to increase the alert for a possible pandemic, or global epidemic.
The same strain of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus has been detected in several locations in Mexico and the United States, and it appears to be spreading directly from human to human, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of health security.
disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13. U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio.
Mexico's health minister says the
but no fatalities have been reported.
Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine.
Others were increasing their
screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials' reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.
Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States.
WHO's emergency committee is still trying to determine exactly how the virus has spread, Fukuda said
"Right now we have cases occurring in a couple of different countries and in multiple locations," he said. "But we also know that in the modern world that cases can simply move around from single locations and not really become established."
Raising the pandemic alert phase could entail issuing specific recommendations to countries on how to halt the disease. So far, WHO has
only urged governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.
WHO Director- General Margaret Chan called the outbreak a public health emergency of "pandemic ential" because
to decide whether to follow the advice.
New Zealand said 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico "likely" had swine flu, and on
the virus can pass from human to human.
Her agency was considering whether to issue nonbinding recommendations on travel and trade restrictions, and even border closures. It is up to governments
The outbreak is being called a public health emergency of "pandemic potential" because the virus can pass from human to human.
INTERNATIONAL
French Health Ministry officials investigated four possible cases of swine flu, but three were found to be negative. In Brazil, a hospital said a patient who arrived from Mexico was hospitalized with some swine flu symptoms.
Monday it said three students in a second group just back from Mexico likely have it as well. Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalized while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera officiates a closed door mass at the Metropolitan cathedral in Mexico City, Sunday. Churches stood empty Sunday in Mexico City after services were canceled, and health workers screened airports and bus stations for sions of swine flu.
Mexico City residents prepare for swine flu
BY DAVID KOOP Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — The cardinal said Mass in a shattered cathedral. Soccer teams played to empty stadiums. Mexico's overcrowded capital locked itself indoors Sunday, terrified by a new strain of swine flu that was spreading around the world.
On Sunday even the enormous Zocalo plaza, where throngs of families congregate for street performances and open-air concerts, was all but empty. A handful of women wearing surgical masks knelt on the plaza's stones and prayed, their arms reaching upward in a lonely vigil.
Inside, Cardinal Norberto Rivera delivered a sermon to nearly empty pews, his pleas for divine intervention relayed over television and radio.
To the south of the city, the Pumas soccer team took on the Chivas at the picturesque Olympic Stadium, decorated by muralist Diego Rivera, but its sold-out volcanic-rock bleachers were empty. They tied 1-1 as fans followed from home on television.
Schools have been canceled
in the capital and the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosi until May 6. Hundreds of public events including concerts and sports matches have been called off to keep people spreading the virus in crowds. Zoos were closed and visits to juvenile correction centers were suspended.
Twenty people have been sickened in the United States and six in Canada, and suspected cases were being reported as far away as Israel and New Zealand. The U.S. declared a public health emergency, providing for easier access to flu tests and medications, and enhanced surveillance along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In Mexico, 86 deaths are suspected to be swine flu, with 22 of those confirmed. Nearly 1,400 people are believed infected. In Mexico City alone, five people died since Saturday of influenza, with two of them confirmed to be swine flu, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said.
Most of those who died sought medical help only after the disease was well advanced, Mexico City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said. By Sunday, throngs of Mexicans were rushing to hospitals, some with just a fever.