BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The
confirmed A/H1N1 flu cases continue to rise worldwide on Wednesday as Belgium
reported its first known case, bringing the tally of affected countries to 34.
A laboratory technician shows a testing
kit from the U.S. Center Disease Control (CDC) on how to determine the
presence of the new H1N1 flu virus, formerly referred to as the swine flu,
inside the laboratory of the Philippine Research Institute for Tropical
Medicine at Muntinlupa city, south of Manila, May 13, 2009. (Xinhua
Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
A 28-year-old patient, who is from the northern
Belgian city of Ghent, fell ill Monday after his return from a two-week trip in
New York and Chicago in the United States, said Belgian Health Minister Laurette
Onkelinx.
This made Belgium the 16th country in Europe and the
34th country in the world which was affected by the disease.
Elsewhere, Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel
Cordova Villalobos said the confirmed death toll from the A/H1N1 flu has risen
to 60, and the total confirmed cases were now 2,386 at the Wednesday morning
press conference.
Cordova said 56 of the 60 confirmed deaths were
infected before April 23, when the Mexican government declared an alert,
indicating the virus is not so rampant as it first attacked the country.
In the United States, the number of confirmed A/ H1N1
cases has risen to 3,352 in 45 U.S. states, with three deaths, the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Wednesday.
The country witnessed an increase of over 300 in
confirmed cases in a single day as 3,009 known cases were reported a day
earlier.
The increase in the number of confirmed cases showed
that the ongoing outbreak of the novel influenza continues to expand in the
United States. CDC officials have said they expect the A/H1N1 flu to spread to
all 50 states, to cause severe disease and some deaths.
Meanwhile, confirmed cases in Canada rose to 389
Wednesday, with 31 new cases added during the day, according to the latest
figures from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
The PHAC said most Canadian cases are mild, with 11
cases having been hospitalized and one death reported up to now.
So far, over 6,000 confirmed cases have been
discovered across the world, according to WHO and governments data.
It is still unknown how the H1N1 virus behaves, and
the clinical spectrum of the disease which it can cause is yet to be fully
understood, Julie Hall, an epidemiologist of the WHO told Singaporean TV
broadcaster Channel News Asia.
"We're calling on all governments to be vigilant, to
try and detect the virus as quickly as possible and to try to delay the spread
of the virus," Hall was quoted as saying in the report.
In an effort to jointly tackle the threat,
representatives of the European Union and the Latin American nations meet in
Prague Wednesday.
The EU member states and the Latin American countries
from the Rio Group will cooperate in the fight against the spread of the new
H1N1 flu and to overcome its social and economic impact, the countries' foreign
ministers pledged in a joint statement at the meeting.
The ministers said at the EU-Rio Group summit,
organized by the Czech presidency of the European Union, that they fully share
the international concern about the disease and they called for efforts to
closely monitor the situation.
Experts have warned against a possible pandemic
caused by the H1N1 virus that combines the swine, bird and human flu viruses.
GENEVA, May 13 (Xinhua) -- For the moment it's still too
soon to make any comments on claims made by an Australian researcher that the
A/H1N1 flu virus may have been created by human error, the World Health
Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
"We have asked scientists in our collaborating
centers, and in animal health, specialists also, to look into this and see
whatever evidence there is one way or the other," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl
told a news briefing in Geneva.
But for the moment "it is very too soon to say
anything on these claims," Hartl said. Full story
MEXICO CITY, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's Health Minister
Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos raised the confirmed death toll from new strain
A/H1N1 flu to 60, and the total confirmed infected to 2,386 at Wednesday morning
press conference.
Cordova also said that the most recent death
confirmed as from the new virus -- which causes breathing difficulties,
headaches, high body temperature and muscular pain -- was around a week old, and
that 56 of the 60 confirmed deaths were infected before April 23, when the
Mexican government declared an alert and ordered all educational institutions
closed. Full story
GENEVA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Since most A/H1N1 flu patients
can recover without antiviral treatment, countries are advised to save their
antiviral drugs for those people to whom the virus tends to cause more severe
and lethal infections, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Tuesday.
"We will recommend to consider the use of antivirals
for high risk groups," said Dr. Nikki Shindo, a medical officer of the WHO's
influenza program, at a news briefing in Geneva. Full story
BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization
(WHO) on Monday called on governments to keep their preparedness against a
possible pandemic as the A/H1N1 flu has spread to at least 31 countries.
The latest confirmed case was found in Cuba on
Monday, where a Mexican student studying in Havana has tested positive for the
disease, the Cuban Health Ministry said in a statement. Full story
GENEVA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Swiss drug maker Roche said on
Tuesday that it was donating 5.65 million treatment courses of its anti-viral
drug Tamiflu to the World Health Organization (WHO) to help fight the A/H1N1 flu
outbreak.
Most of the new donation will be used to replenish
stockpiles of the UN agency, which has been dispatching the anti-viral drug to
more than 70 developing countries to help them deal with the threat of the new
flu virus, the Basel-based company said in a statement. Full story
GENEVA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization
(WHO) on Monday issued some preliminary observations about the A/H1N1 flu virus,
which has caused dozens of deaths and infected people in some 30
countries. Full story
