Killer pig flu threat to UK: Two people admitted to British hospital as virus which has killed 86 spreads worldwide



Pig flu virus kills up to 86 people in Mexico



Two people admitted to British hospital as 'precaution'



Eight New York City children have 'mild form' of flu

Canada and Spain confirm first cases

10 students in New Zealand 'likely' to be infected

Reports of possible cases in Israel and France

1,300 others thought to have been infected

U.S. President Obama's own brush with flu



Tamiflu and Relenza both effective against the illness

Britain is on alert today as a deadly outbreak of swine flu which has claimed 86 lives in Mexico spreads around the world.

Two people who returned to Scotland from Mexico on Tuesday have been admitted to hospital as a precaution, while eight New York schoolchildren are being treated for 'a mild form'.

Scotland's health secretary Nicola Sturgeon later said the pair had not been in an area affected by recent outbreaks of swine influenza.

She said: 'The patients have displayed mild flu-like symptoms and their current condition is not causing concern.'

Canada has reported its first confirmed cases of swine flu on Sunday - at opposite ends of the country, with two cases in the western province of British Columbia and four in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia.

Spain's Health Ministry said three people who just returned from Mexico were under observation in hospitals in the northern Basque region, in southeastern Albacete and the Mediterranean port city of Valencia.

There was also a scare for U.S. President Obama after it was revealed he met and shook hands with an archaeologist who died 24 hours later of flu-like symptoms.



Outbreak: Children in Mexico City ride a bicycle while while wearing protective masks following the spread of the swine flu virus



More than a thousand people are thought to be infected around the world, with doctors in France, New Zealand and Israel also treating people who may have contracted the illness.

However Mexican President Calderon announced this afternoon that 'most' of the 1,300 people suspected to have swine flu in Mexico had been given a 'clean bill of health'.

Meanwhile passengers flying in to Heathrow from Mexico were kept back on a plane for 45 minutes as while health inspectors.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the outbreak is serious but the public should know 'it's not a time to panic'.

There have also been 20 confirmed outbreaks in America as the World Health Organisation warned of the possibility of a global pandemic.

81 people had been killed in Mexico, which was upped to 86 later this afternoon.

People wear masks as they pray in Mexico City's Cathedral

Members are due to meet on Tuesday to decide if the alert level should be raised.

Today churches in heavily Catholic Mexico City stood empty after services were cancelled in the wake of the outbreak.

Hundreds of public events from concerts to sports matches throughout the country were called off to keep people from congregating and spreading the virus in large crowds.

Mexican soldiers and health workers have been patrolling airports and bus stations in search of those showing symptoms, which include a fever of more than 100 F, body aches, coughing, sore throat, respiratory congestion and in some cases, vomiting and diahorrea.

Today, New York health officials said more than 100 students at the St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, recently began suffering a fever, sore throat and aches and pains. Some of their relatives also have been ill.

A police officer, wearing a surgical mask as a precaution against infection, directs traffic in downtown Mexico City

Some of the school's students had visited Mexico on a spring break trip two weeks ago.

New York officials previously had characterised the cases as probable, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the cases were swine flu, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

About 100 students at St. Francis Preparatory School complained of flu-like symptoms; further tests will determine how many of those cases are swine flu.

Bloomberg stressed that the New York cases were mild and many are recovering, but said that parents of the students also had flu symptoms, 'suggesting it is spreading person to person.'

He said that the virus likely came from Mexico, although that has not officially been determined.

'We do know that some of the students from the school had a spring break in Mexico,' Bloomberg said, surrounded by top city officials and members of Congress. 'It is most likely to be brought back from Mexico, but nobody knows.'

Jorge Guzman is comforted by relatives after the death of his son. The 23-year-old is believed to have had swine flu, but was not officially diagnosed



Federal health officials said Sunday that 20 swine flu cases have been reported so far in New York, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. Patients have ranged in age from 9 to over 50. At least two were hospitalised but all had recovered or are recovering.

New York officials said the flu strain discovered in the patients is similar to the one in Mexico, but not as severe at this point. They are still conducting tests to investigate the strain.

St. Francis is the largest private Catholic high school in the U.S., with 2,700 students.



Parent Jackie Casola said Sunday that her son Robert Arifo, a St. Francis sophomore, told her on Thursday that a number of children had been sent home because of illness. On Friday, he said hardly anyone was in school.

Casola said she expected to keep her son home from school on Monday, even if it was open. He has not shown any symptoms, but some of his friends have, she said, and she has been extra vigilant about his health.



'I must have drove him crazy, I kept taking his temperature in the middle of the night,' she said.

In New York, state infectious-diseases, epidemiology and disaster preparedness workers have been dispatched to monitor and respond to possible flu cases.

New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said New Yorkers having trouble breathing due to an undiagnosed respiratory illness should seek treatment but shouldn't become overly alarmed.

Medical facilities near St. Francis Prep have already been flooded with people overreacting to the outbreak, he said.

'The bottom line is there is an outbreak at St. Francis school and we are monitoring that outbreak very carefully,' Bloomberg said.

In Ohio, state health officials said a 9-year-old boy who recently traveled to Mexico on vacation with his family has a confirmed case of swine flu and is recovering at his home. Officials do not know if the boy has the same strain linked to the deaths in Mexico, health department spokesman Robert Jennings said.

Kansas health officials said Saturday that they had confirmed swine flu in a married couple living in the central part of the state after the husband visited Mexico. The couple, who live in Dickinson County, were not hospitalized, and the state described their illnesses as mild.

'Fortunately, the man and woman understand the gravity of the situation and are very willing to isolate themselves,' said Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, the state health officer.

Pedestrians and drivers queue on Americas International Bridge in Ciudad, after US authorities implemented checks on Mexicans who want to enter the US

At least nine swine flu cases have been reported in California and Texas. The most recent California case, the state's seventh, was a 35-year-old woman from Imperial County who got sick in early April. She had no known contact with the others.

Health officials are concerned because people appear to have no immunity to the virus, a combination of bird, swine and human influenzas. The virus also presents itself like other swine flus, but none of the U.S. cases appear to involve direct contact with pigs, Eberhart-Phillips said.

Suspected cases have also been found in several other countries around the world.

New Zealand's health minister says 10 students who were recently in Mexico have tested positive for influenza. He said the cases are 'likely' to be swine flu.

Tony Ryall has said that 13 high school students who returned from Mexico yesterday were tested for swine influenza, and 10 had positive results. The results have been sent to the World Health Organization lab in Melbourne, Australia.

Mr Ryall said there was 'no guarantee' the students had swine flu, but that health officials were taking precautions. He added today that none of the patients were seriously ill and seemed to be recovering.

A group of nuns walk wearing surgical masks in the Zocalo plaza

The Spanish government today confirmed that it was also investigating three suspected cases of swine flu.

A Health Ministry spokesman said cases were being investigated in Valencia, Bilbao and Albacete, inland from Alicante in south-east Spain. The official stressed that none of the cases had been confirmed. It was not immediately known if any of the patients had recently visited Mexico.

French Health Ministry officials said four possible cases of swine flu are currently under investigation, including a family of three in the northern Nord region and a woman in the Paris region. The four recently returned from Mexico. Tests on two separate cases of suspected swine flu proved negative, they said.

Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalised while authorities try to determine whether he had the disease.

Earlier, panic spread throughout Mexico, where those who died were reported to be the first victims of a pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997, killing several hundred people, and a 1968 'Hong Kong' flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally.

New flu strains can spread quickly because no one has natural immunity to them and a vaccine takes months to develop.



Countries across Asia, which have had to grapple with deadly viruses like H5N1 bird flu and SARS in recent years, have snapped into action. Airports and border checkpoints in Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan have been screening travellers for any flu-like symptoms.

Pigs at a farm on the outskirts of Mexico City yesterday where officials are taking measures to contain the influenza

In Egypt, health authorities were examining about 350,000 pigs being raised in Cairo and other provinces for swine flu.

Argentina has declared a health alert, requiring anyone arriving on flights from Mexico to advise if they had flu-like symptoms.

Russia imposed curbs on meat imports from Mexico, some U.S. states and the Caribbean, while the United Arab Emirates said it was considering similar action.

As well as the 86 dead – mostly aged between 25 and 45 – more than 1,300 patients were being treated in Mexico for respiratory infections that showed signs of the new strain.



The same virus type has appeared in Texas, California, Kansas and New York. A total of 19 people have been infected, eight of whom have recovered.



Last night it was reported that President Barack Obama had met one of the possible victims earlier this month.

He was greeted on his visit to Mexico City on April 16 by archaeologist Felipe Solis, who died the following day from flu-like symptoms.

A White House spokesman confirmed yesterday that Mr Obama's health was fine. 'The president's trip to Mexico has not put his health in any danger,' he said.

Barack Obama: The President's trip to Mexico did not put his health in danger

The President was in Mexico last week to meet with top government officials and talk about the growing problem of drug smuggling and border violence.

Mexico's health secretary, Jose Cordova, said Mr Solis had a pre-existing illness and died of pneumonia unrelated to influenza.

Tests on Saturday night also showed that eight students who fell ill at a school in New York with flu-like symptoms on Thursday and Friday also had the virus.

A US government source said ‘hundreds’ of Americans had been in contact with infected people and that it was now urgent that this group be tested.

There is no vaccine for the new strain, but patients who become ill with it can be treated with anti-viral drugs.

It is expected that all travel to and from Mexico will be halted and that any Britons in California, New York and Kansas will be instructed to get full medical check-ups before flying back to Europe.

Mexico’s health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, went on national television yesterday to issue a stark warning. He said: ‘This is highly contagious. It can be fatal and it has pandemic properties.’

He advised people to stay in their homes if possible, keep away from public places and avoid physical contact.

Mexican mounted policemen patrol in Mexico City's historic Zocalo square

Neighbouring California has made a 'rigorous and thorough' response to the new strain, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said.

The BA attendant was taken from BA flight 242 to Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow and was said to be responding well to treatment.

Medics from the Heathrow Port Health Authority were waiting at the airport when the aircraft landed. They boarded the jumbo jet and kept passengers waiting on board while they examined the steward.

Danger: Women wear surgical masks as they exit the subway

Yesterday afternoon, BA provided 30 face masks for crew on the next flight to Mexico from Heathrow. Sources said they had bought all the masks on sale at Boots in the airport. A cabin crew source said: ‘BA bought 30 masks from Boots because there are concerns about the spread of this flu in Mexico. There is no Mexico flight from Heathrow on Sunday, and we are hoping that by the time Monday’s flight leaves London, BA will be able to find more masks so that our crew can be protected if needs be. The same happened a while ago during the SARS outbreak.’

A Northwick Park Hospital spokesman said: ‘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 in the hospital.’

Mexico City canceled hundreds of public concerts, sporting events and meetings on Saturday as authorities tried to contain the outbreak

The Health Protection Agency said: ‘We are aware of a patient admitted to a London hospital with reported travel history to Mexico. As a precautionary measure the patient is being tested for a range of respiratory and other illnesses in line with UK health guidance. At present there have been no confirmed cases of human swine flu anywhere in Europe.’

World Health Organisation director-general Margaret Chan said the outbreak in Mexico involves ‘an animal strain of the H1N1 virus’.

Those who died in Mexico – where the first case was confirmed on April 13 – had not been in contact with animals. Mr Cordova said: ‘This probably started with pigs but has now mutated to pass between humans.’

An organ grinder, wearing surgical masks as a precaution against infection

The age of the victims last night heightened fears that the virus could be the beginning of a pandemic – most victims of the so-called Spanish flu that wiped out about 50million people after the First World War were men and women in their prime.

Medical experts said last night that while starting like a normal flu, victims’ temperatures soon shot to 102F, with muscle aches so painful they were almost paralysing. The flu is also characterised by extremely painful headaches and eventually diarrhoea and vomiting.

The Mexican government began a mass immunisation programme, but abandoned it on Friday after it was acknowledged that the vaccines offered no protection against the new killer virus.

In efforts to stop the disease spreading, the authorities ordered all schools and universities across Mexico City to close until further notice.

‘The worst thing is that you don’t know who has this virus,’ said Gisela Hernandez, a 34-year-old housewife. ‘Maybe your neighbour has got it. Maybe the guy in the corner shop or the restaurant has it.’

It is thought people can carry the virus for up to seven days before symptoms show. Michael Osterholm, a pandemic flu expert at the University of Minnesota, said new cases were probably already incubating across he world.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, pictured at NASA's Ames Research Center yesterday, said the state is coordinating with federal and international health experts on its plan to fight the flu

Tamiflu, an antiviral drug used against bird flu, is said to be effective against the new strain.

Swine flu is a respiratory disease, normally confined to pigs. Only a few human cases have been reported in the past, mostly among farm workers, however, flu viruses can mutate into deadly new forms.



The WHO's pandemic alert level is currently at to phase 3. The organization said the level could be raised to phase 4 if the virus shows sustained ability to pass from human to human.

Phase 5 would be reached if the virus is found in at least two countries in the same region.



'The declaration of phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short,' WHO said.



Phase 6 would indicate a full-scale global pandemic.