Swine flu developments

A Canadian woman with swine flu has died, a health official said Friday, but he noted that she also had serious underlying medical conditions. Dr. Andre Corriveau, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said the woman was in her 30s and had other health problems, but Corriveau would not elaborate on them. She died April 28 in her hometown in northern Alberta, Corriveau said.

Mexico’s U.N. envoy said nations need common rules for responding to flu outbreaks to prevent discrimination and unfair trade restrictions. Luis Alfonso De Alba complained that Mexican citizens and exports were being unfairly singled out. The World Health Organization confirmed it is looking into the measures countries take in combatting the outbreak and the justifications they give, but has no plans to make the findings public, a spokesman said.

Mexico accounts for about half of all of the 2,500 human cases confirmed so far, and all but two of 45 confirmed deaths, the World Health Organization said.

Brazil became the latest country to acknowledge the presence of the disease when it formally declared four cases to WHO.

Hong Kong lifted a weeklong quarantine of an upscale hotel where Asia’s first swine flu case was traced, allowing 280 guests and workers to end an isolation that was criticized as overkill by some but a medical necessity by authorities.

Japan confirmed three people with swine flu, the country’s first cases. The patients were among 392 passengers who arrived in Tokyo’s Narita International Airport on a Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit, the Health Ministry said. The patients had stayed in Oakville, Canada, on a school trip.

About one in 10 Americans has stopped hugging and kissing close friends or relatives because of concerns about swine flu, according to a Harvard study.

The World Health Organization will shorten its annual meeting in Geneva later this month because health ministries around the world are busy with the outbreak, diplomats and officials said.