WASHINGTON – THE swine flu outbreak began taking a toll on the US on Wednesday, spreading to 11 states and closing schools amid confirmation of the first US death – a Mexican toddler who was visiting Texas with his family.
In California, dozens of Marines were confined after one came down with the disease. Some 100 schools were closed, and more might need to be shut down temporarily.
President Barack Obama pledged ‘great vigilance’ in dealing with the situation as the total confirmed cases in the U.S. rose to nearly 100, with many more suspected.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization sounded its own ominous alarm, raising its alert level to one notch below a full-fledged global pandemic. Said WHO Director General Margaret Chan: ‘It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic.’
Dr Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta there were confirmed cases in ten states, including 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California. The CDC also 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.
Also, Illinois officials cited nine ‘likely cases,’ most of them in the Chicago area, and three schools were shut down. 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. A Marine spokesman at the Pentagon, Major David Nevers, said the sick Marine was doing well and his condition continued to improve. Maj Nevers said about 30 others who had been in contact with the sick Marine would be held apart for five days as well as to see if they show symptoms.
Despite calls from many US lawmakers for tightening controls over the Mexico-US border, Mr Obama and his deputies ruled out that option.
At a prime-time news conference, Mr Obama said health officials weren’t recommending closing the border with Mexico. That, he said, ‘would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States.’ — AP.
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