WHO retains alert status as flu cases climb
By Laura MacInnis and Kittipong Soonprasert
GENEVA/BANGKOK (Reuters) - The World Health Organization kept its global pandemic alert at 5 out of 6 on Friday because the new H1N1 virus was not spreading rapidly outside North America, while Asian nations promised a common fight against the new flu.
At the epicenter of the outbreak in Mexico, authorities reported one more death, based on lab tests of patients who died in days past, to raise the total to 45. A quarter of the dead were obese, the government said.
The virus has also killed two people in the United States and infected more than 3,000 people in 25 countries. U.S. officials expect it to spread to all 50 states.
Swine flu briefly rattled financial markets after Mexico announced it had detected a new virus on April 23, and it temporarily depressed hog futures as some countries banned imported swine and pork.
Studies show the virus is a strange coupling between a triple-hybrid virus with pig, human and bird elements and a European swine virus not seen before in North America. Researchers have yet to determine where it originated.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,639 U.S. cases on Friday, up from 896 on Thursday, a jump that has been expected as a backlog of lab tests were confirmed. The Mexican case total climbed to 1,364 from 1,204.
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