Mexico Races to Stop Deadly Flu
BETSY MCKAY DAVID LUHNOW
Health officials said Saturday there were no new confirmed cases of a deadly flu virus, but warned that the disease is widespread and intensified their search to discover its true potential.
Mexican health authorities said the death toll from the new strain of A/H1N1 swine flu remains at 20, and they are continuing to investigate whether more than 1,000 others were infected with the mysterious bug, which attacked in three geographically diverse areas of the country and is taking its heaviest toll in young adults.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of confirmed cases of the new flu in the U.S. remained at eight, but the agency said it expects to find more soon.
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Women wore masks inside a health center in Mexico City Friday.
"The public-health community has a number of active investigations of suspect illness going on," Anne Schuchat, the CDC's interim deputy director for science and public health programs, said in a telephone news conference. "I expect us to find more throughout the country."
"It's clear this is widespread, and that is why we have let you know we do not think we can contain this virus," she said. "We're likely to find it in other places."
In Geneva, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan warned that the virus had the potential to cause a pandemic, but cautioned that it was too early to tell whether it would erupt into a global outbreak. A WHO committee met to determine whether to raise a global pandemic alert.
Meanwhile, health departments around the world were on the alert for cases of illness caused by the new strain.
The CDC has sent teams to California and Mexico to assist with investigations, Dr. Schuchat said. Of the eight cases, six children and adults were in San Diego and Imperial Counties in Southern California. Two 16 year-old boys in Guadalupe County, near San Antonio, Texas, were also found to have had the disease. Only one of the cases, a 41 year-old woman, was hospitalized, and the others had only mild disease, the CDC said.
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