Swine flu outbreak in 11 states; 1 dead

WASHINGTON —- The swine flu outbreak began hitting home across the U.S. on Wednesday, spreading to 11 states and closing schools amid confirmation of the first U.S. death —- a Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family —- and the confinement of dozens of Marines after one became sick in California.

Hundreds of schools, including the entire Fort Worth, Texas, system, were closed, and more might need to be shut down temporarily, President Barack Obama said, declaring, “This obviously is a serious situation.” Confirmed cases in the U.S. rose to nearly 100, with many more suspected.

A top Georgia health official said that while the state has yet to confirm a case, he expects some Georgians will get sick from swine flu, and some possibly die.

“I expect we’ll see cases,” said Dr. Patrick O’Neal, director of the Office of Preparedness in Georgia’s Department of Human Resources. “With any flu cases, we do see deaths.”

He said the state lab has tested 13 samples in recent days, and has sent one to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing.

Georgia has yet to start distributing its stockpile of antiviral flu drugs, O’Neal said. The state has ordered a shipment of drugs from the federal stockpile to treat an additional 325,000 people, on top of an existing lot that would serve 460,000. He said the state would wait until commercial supply chains are exhausted before releasing that stock.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization sounded its own ominous alarm, raising its alert level to one notch below a full-fledged global pandemic. WHO Director General Margaret Chan said, “It really is all of humanity that is under threat.”

Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Atlanta-based CDC, said there were confirmed cases in 10 states, including 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California. The CDC counted scattered cases in Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.

State officials in Maine said laboratory tests had confirmed three cases in that state, not yet included in the CDC count.

And the Pentagon said a Marine at the Twentynine Palms base in California had been confirmed to be ill with swine flu and was isolated, along with his roommate. About 30 other Marines who had been in contact with the sick Marine were being held for five days to see if they show symptoms.

In Mexico, where the flu is believed to have originated, officials said the disease was now suspected in 159 deaths, and nearly 2,500 illnesses.

Despite calls from many U.S. lawmakers for tightening controls over the Mexico-U.S. border, administration officials ruled out that option.

“Closing our nation’s borders is not merited here,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. She said closing borders or U.S. ports would have enormous adverse economic consequences and would have “no impact or very little” to help stop the spread of the virus.

“This virus is already in the United States. Any containment theory … is really moot at this time,” Napolitano said.

In fact, customs agents have delayed 49 people at the border because of flulike symptoms and 41 have been cleared so far. Test results on the other eight were not complete.

Obama offered “thoughts and prayers” to the family of a nearly 2-year-old Mexican boy who died in Houston, the first confirmed U.S. fatality among more than five dozen infections. Health officials in Texas said the child had traveled with his family from Mexico to Brownsville on April 4 and had been sick for five days before being hospitalized there. He then was brought to Houston where he died Monday night.

The Senate’s top Republican said the spread was a “very worrisome situation and we’re all following it very closely.” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, “We stand ready to closely work with the administration to protect the American people as this situation unfolds.”

Laboratory testing showed the new virus was treatable by the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, and the government was shipping states enough medication to treat 11 million people as a precaution. All states should get their share by Sunday.

No shortages had been reported —- there was plenty in regular pharmacies, federal health officials said.

A pandemic is an epidemic that has expanded globally. The swine flu has been reported on four continents.

Germany and Austria became the latest countries to report infections. Germany reported four cases Wednesday and Austria one.

New Zealand’s total rose to 14. Britain had earlier reported five cases and Spain four. There were 19 cases in Canada and two in Israel.

The disease is not spread by eating pork and U.S. officials appeared to go out of their way Wednesday not to call the strain “swine flu.” Obama called the bug the “H1N1 virus,” and other administration officials followed his lead.

“The disease is not a food-borne illness,” Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, CDC’s interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

She said the strain is particularly worrisome because “it’s a virus that hasn’t been around before. The general population doesn’t have immunity from it.”

People have various levels of protection against other more common types of flu because they are exposed to it over time, and that protection accumulates. She suggested that some older people might have more resistance to this particular strain than younger people because its traits might resemble outbreaks of decades ago.

Staff writer Craig Schneider contributed to this article.

If you have questions

The nation’s top health officials dealing with the swine flu emergency will take questions directly from the public today on a Webcast. To participate, e-mail questions to “hhsstudiohhs.gov,” and then log on at 1 p.m. to www.hhs.gov or www.cdc.gov. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will be ready to answer.

Airlines cuts fares to Mexico

Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and other U.S. carriers are slashing Mexico fares to as little as $260 round trip as demand dries up because of the swine flu outbreak. Delta is charging $300 between Atlanta and Cancun, a reduction of at least $100 from a few weeks ago. Bargain hunters who book one of those fares would be going against U.S. health officials’ advisories to forgo nonessential travel to the country hardest hit by the disease.

From news services