The WHO said yesterday that 15 countries had reported 615 infections with the flu virus A-H1N1, widely known as swine flu.
Most of the increase from Friday’s 331 toll reflects the results of ongoing tests from Mexico, which had a backlog of samples in WHO labs, the UN agency said.
Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, now has 397 laboratory-confirmed human cases including 16 deaths, said the WHO, whose data has been lagging national figures and is considered most authoritative.
The second-most affected country, the US, had 141 cases confirmed in WHO labs including one death — a Mexican infant whose family crossed the border to seek medical help. Other countries with confirmed H1N1 infections but no fatalities are: Austria (1), Canada (34), Hong Kong (1), Denmark (1), France (1), Germany (4), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), South Korea (1), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and Britain (13).
Mexico has cut its suspected death toll to 101 from as many as 176 because of test samples coming back negative in its labs, the government said late on Friday, in a sign the flu pandemic the WHO said was “imminent” may not be as severe as first feared.
Yesterday, the WHO repeated its recommendation that borders stay open, but said: “It is considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention.
“Individuals are advised to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water on a regular basis and should seek medical attention if they develop any symptoms of influenza-like illness,” the WHO said on its Web site.
One of the two people in Britain to have contracted the new deadly flu strain without having recently visited Mexico said yesterday he believed he caught the virus during a brief meeting with a work colleague.
Barry Greatorex, 42, said he caught the disease last week during a half-hour meeting with a colleague who had recently returned from Mexico but had herself so far tested negative.
“She had a cough then and that’s seemingly where I got it,” he told Sky News. “I wasn’t there too long but it was obviously enough.”
Greatorex and Graeme Pacitti, 24, became the first confirmed cases where the infection had been spread by person to person within Britain on Friday.
Previous sufferers had caught the virus while in Mexico and Pacitti became ill after spending time with Britain’s first confirmed swine flu cases, Iain and Dawn Askham, who returned from their Mexican honeymoon with the virus.
“The first non-imported cases of swine flu have been confirmed in England and Scotland,” Chief Medical Advisor Liam Donaldson said late on Friday. “Until now cases were confined to people who had themselves recently come back from Mexico.”
Tests are now being carried out on a further 642 suspected cases across Britain. Health officials said so far the majority of patients with the flu had suffered mild symptoms and had responded well to antiviral treatment.
Greatorex said he had been feeling “pretty bad” all week until he received the Tamiflu drug on Friday.
“The first few days this week, I’ve never experienced anything like it and wouldn’t wish it on anybody,” he said.
The British government has been stockpiling anti-viral doses and has launched “Catch it, Bin it, Kill it!” advertisements, urging people to cover coughs and sneezes with tissues, throw them away and then wash their hands.
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