CAM: Mexico swine flu cases jump, LatAm deaths soar

AAP General News (Australia)
08-05-2009
CAM: Mexico swine flu cases jump, LatAm deaths soar

MEXICO CITY, Aug 4 AFP - Mexican swine flu cases have jumped as the Netherlands and
Vietnam joined the growing list of countries with fatalities and deaths from the virus
in Latin America soared.

Three new deaths each, not yet confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), were
registered on Tuesday in Costa Rica, Peru and in San Salvador, two more in Saudi Arabia
and others in Bolivia and Spain.

While no new deaths were reported in Mexico, the health ministry said almost 1,000
fresh cases had been confirmed in just five days, taking the total soaring above 17,000.

"As of yesterday (Monday) evening the number of confirmed cases of A(H1N1) in the country
was 17,416, of which 146 have died," a ministry statement said.

It was unclear where all the new cases had occurred, but the impoverished southeastern
state of Chiapas has been struggling to contain a sharp rise in recorded cases in recent
weeks.

Since the virus first emerged in Mexico in April, it has spread globally, reaching
pandemic level and affecting nearly every country in the world, according to the WHO.

The United States has recorded the most deaths from the virus, 353 so far, followed
by Argentina with 165 deaths.

According to the latest WHO figures, which only cover cases recorded up to July 31,
there are 162,380 cases of infection worldwide, and 1,154 confirmed deaths from the virus.

The two new deaths in Saudi Arabia included a Sri Lankan man who was found dead in
his hotel room on Monday.

Authorities in war-torn Iraq, meanwhile, quarantined a hotel in the holy Shiite city
of Karbala after a Saudi pilgrim staying there tested positive for swine flu.

The decision to isolate the hotel comes just days before commemoration ceremonies in
the city, 110km south of Baghdad, for the birth of Imam Mahdi, an 8th century Islamic
leader who vanished and is revered by Shiites as the coming Messiah.

"We discovered the first swine flu case, a Saudi national who arrived in Karbala two
days ago," governor Amal al-Din al-Har told a media conference.

"We quarantined all of the residents of the hotel he was staying at because of fears
some of them were infected."

The Netherlands on Tuesday joined the rank of countries where people have died from
the virus when a 17-year-old boy died overnight, health officials said. Vietnam also reported
its first fatality, a 29-year-old woman.

India and South Africa had both reported their first fatalities from the A(H1N1) virus
late on Monday.

The new deaths came as health officials raised the alarm about a strain of swine flu
that is resistant to the Tamiflu treatment.

Maria Teresa Cerqueira, head of the Pan-American Health Organisation office in La Jolla,
California, said a Tamiflu-resistant mutation of the virus had been found around the US-Mexico
border in El Paso and close to McAllen, Texas.

Experts had gathered in La Jolla, California, on Monday to discuss responses to the
outbreak, and warned that resistant strains were likely emerging because of overuse of
antivirals like Tamiflu.

"In the United States Tamiflu is sold with a prescription, but in Mexico and Canada
it is sold freely and taken at the first sneeze. Then, when it is really needed, it doesn't
work," said Cerqueira.

Cases of swine flu that were resistant to the anti-viral medicine have now been found
in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan.

A Taiwanese biotech company on Tuesday started mass production of a swine flu vaccine
before even completing clinical trials, in a bid to get a jump before the start of the
winter flu season.

Adimmune Corp, the island's only human vaccine manufacturer, said it was starting production
at its plant in central Taichung.

The company is due to deliver five million doses of the vaccine before the end of October,
according to the purchase contract it has signed with the government, said deputy CEO
and president Ignatius Wei.

A sign of the burgeoning demand for such a drug, Brazil said on Tuesday it had ordered
18 million doses of swine flu vaccine this year and was considering buying another 15
million next year.

AFP maur

KEYWORD: FLU WORLD UPDATE

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.