Mexico reported two more swine flu deaths on Tuesday as WHO scientists asked if it had moved too quickly to declare the outbreak a pandemic.
Authorities in Mexico said the death toll had risen to 85, and infected cases rose to 4,721 with scientists advancing through a backlog of samples.
New cases were reported across the globe, as A(H1N1) cases worldwide soared to nearly 13,000.
The virus has caused 92 deaths and infected 12,954 people in 46 countries since it was first uncovered last month, the WHO’s latest figures showed.
With the continued spread of the disease, the WHO enlisted scientists to help clear up the criteria needed for declaring a pandemic, amid concern the response of the Geneva headquartered body may have caused undue fear and disruption.
“We are trying to see what kind of adjustments must be made to make sure that the definitions really meet the situation,” said WHO interim Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda.
The move follows appeals by several countries for more caution before moving up a step from the current phase five alert to declaring a pandemic for the new A(H1N1) virus.
In many parts of the world the outbreak has hit trade and the economic losses are only now becoming clearer.
On Tuesday, Mexican restaurant owners said around 6,500 eateries remained definitively closed because of losses from the swine flu epidemic, involving the loss of more than 55,000 jobs.
But the virus continued its march.
The Gulf kingdom of Bahrain reported its first confirmed case, the second state in the Gulf region hit by the disease.
“The first case is a young Bahraini man of 21 who has returned from studying in New York,” health ministry spokesman Adel Abdullah said.
Britain revealed an outbreak of 47 new cases, nearly all of them linked to a school in the West Midlands of England, while Greece reported its second flu patient, a 21-year-old man.
For travelers, the spread of swine flu around the globe has disrupted many travel plans.
In Russia, the mere suspicion of swine flu sent passengers back home.
A US charter plane with five passengers and two crew turned back from a remote airport in eastern Russia after local medical officials said they suspected a case of swine flu on board, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.
“During a sanitary check in the cabin of the plane ... doctors found one of the two crew members had an elevated temperature,” a spokesman for the local branch of Russia’s trade and sanitation watchdog told the agency.
The plane’s pilot decided to turn around and fly back to the US rather than submit to medical examinations locally.
Tuesday’s WHO figures show the biggest growth in swine flu cases in the US, with 212 more people infected, and one more death, bringing the US total to 6,764 and 12 deaths.
In Latin America the number of cases also rose, with El Salvador, Ecuador and Chile reporting new cases.
The WHO’s Fukuda said it was quite possible the A(H1N1) influenza would continue to spread to other countries.
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