US confirms 2nd H1N1 flu death in Texas

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-06 09:44

HOUSTON - A Texas woman with the new A (H1N1) flu died earlier this week, health officials said on Tuesday, the second death outside of Mexico, where the epidemic appeared to be waning.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano speaks during a news conference on the H1N1 flu outbreak May 4, 2009. [Agencies]

The death of the woman, who was in her 30s and had health problems, followed that of a Mexican toddler visiting Texas. US health officials have predicted that the virus would spread and inevitably kill some people, just as seasonal flu does.

The World Health Organization was monitoring the spread of the virus and said 21 countries have officially reported 1,490 cases.

The United States has 403 confirmed cases of the flu in 38 states, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, with another 700 "probable" cases.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned that "those numbers will go up, we anticipate, and unfortunately there are likely to be more hospitalizations and more deaths."

Canada has reported 165 cases.

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A（H1N1）Influenza Outbreak

Health officials said the outbreak seemed to be slowing in Mexico, hardest-hit by the virus, which is a mixture of swine viruses and some elements of human and bird flu. At the same time, infections were breaking out globally and are expected to spread.

Pandemic Alert

The question remained how far the virus would spread and how serious would it be. The WHO remained at pandemic alert level 5, meaning a pandemic is imminent.

"If it spreads around the world you will see hundreds of millions of people get infected," the WHO's Dr. Keiji Fukuda told a news briefing.

If it continues to spread outside the Americas, the WHO would likely move to phase 6, a full pandemic alert. This would prompt countries to activate pandemic plans, distribute antiviral drugs and antibiotics and perhaps advise people to take other precautions like limiting large gatherings.

"It's not so much the number of countries, but whether the virus sets up shop in any of those countries like it has here and starts to spread person to person. And given the number of countries that have cases, one would think that eventually that criteria would be met," said acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser.

He and Fukuda said it would be important to watch the Southern Hemisphere, where winter and the flu season are just beginning.

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