The number of confirmed human swine flu cases in the United States has risen to 109, including a Mexican toddler who became the first fatality from swine flu in the country, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) reported Thursday. Meanwhile, the Education Department said nearly 300 schools around the country have been closed amid concerns about the fast spreading of the swine flu.
According to data posted on CDC's website, the states with confirmed cases are: Arizona (1), California (14), Indiana (1), Kansas (2), Massachusetts (2), Michigan (1), Nevada (1), New York (50), Ohio (1), South Carolina (10) and Texas (26). South Carolina has confirmed 10 new cases, it said.
A 23-month old Mexican child in Texas has died of swine flu, the CDC said Wednesday. The child is the first to die of the deadly flu outside of Mexico where the virus has caused more than 159 deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses.
Officials from the Education Department said on Thursday that 298 schools in 11 states have been closed amid concerns about swine flu, which will affect about 172,000 students. Most of the schools will be closed for a few days.
A top official at the CDC said schools should close if they have a confirmed flu case, or they strongly suspect one. The schools that have been closed are still a small share of the 132, 000 nationwide.
US President Barack Obama also said Wednesday that closures of schools in some instances may be necessary, especially in cases of confirmed infections.
It is the recommendation of public health officials "that schools with confirmed cases ... should consider closing if the situation becomes more serious," Obama said in remarks at the White House before leaving on a trip to Missouri.
Obama said the US government are "closely and continuously monitoring the emergent cases of this virus throughout the United States."
"This is obviously a serious situation. Serious enough to take the utmost precautions," he said.
On Thursday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said the virus had been confirmed in a woman in her 30s, who had recently returned from a trip to Mexico and in a baggage handler at Denver International Airport.
The woman was not hospitalized, and the baggage handler, who is in his 40s, was hospitalized but was recovering and due to be released Thursday, the statement said.
State health officials were testing lab specimens from more patients, and these "may confirm additional cases of H1N1 flu in the days and weeks to come," the chief medical officer at the health department, Ned Calonge, said.
Colorado is the latest states to confirm cases of the H1N1 virus as the U.S. infection rate continued to rise, nearly a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the alert about a rapidly spreading flu outbreak in Mexico.
Nebraska officials have confirmed that one person had been infected with the H1N1 virus in the state and said they were investigating two other probable cases of swine flu.
Minnesota authorities also confirmed that a resident with ties to a middle school in Cold Spring had fallen ill with the swine flu based on tests by the CDC.
The CDC keeps a running tally of US infections on its website while state officials report cases separately.
The White House confirmed on Thursday that a member of President Barack Obama's delegation to Mexico, an Energy Department employee, was identified as a suspect patient of the swine flu but he has recovered.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the unnamed individual has been cleared to return to work and his family members, who suffered from mild to moderate symptoms, also recovered without medication or hospitalization.
The United States now confirmed more swine flu cases than any nation except Mexico.
The WHO announced on Thursday that it would no longer use the term "swine flu" to refer to the current outbreak. Instead, it would refer to the new influenza virus as "influenza A (H1N1)."
"From today (April 30), WHO will refer to the new influenza virus as influenza A (H1N1)," the UN agency said in a short notice posted on its website.
The WHO has repeatedly stressed that people cannot be infected by this new virus through consumption of well-cooked pork or exposure to pigs.
"Even though the virus originated in pigs, we do not believe that people are getting infected by pigs," said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director-general ad interim for health security and environment.
"This is really a virus that is being transmitted from person to person. Therefore, we think that with food-handling practices, the eating of pork meat does not pose a danger to people," Fukuda told reporters.
(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2009)
