Mexico said the swine flu epidemic was not as aggressive as originally feared as it began a five-day shutdown Friday to halt its spread and more countries confirmed cases on their soil.
As nations stepped up safety measures following a World Health Organization (WHO) warning a global pandemic may be imminent, Mexico's government raised its confirmed toll to 15 dead and 328 people infected.
But Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the new count -- up from 12 dead and 300 infected -- did not represent new cases coming in but rather testing and analysis of a backlog of "probable" cases in the epicentre of the crisis.
"Fortunately the virus is not so aggressive -- it's not a case of avian flu, which had a mortality rate of nearly 70 percent," Cordova told a news conference.
He said the A(H1N1) flu virus, while far more contagious than avian flu, was easily treated with anti-viral medicine "if treatment is given from the first day."
However the virus continued to spread far beyond the borders of Mexico with the first confirmed cases of infection recorded in Hong Kong and Denmark.
In Washington, the Inter-American Development Bank said it would approve three billion dollars in loans for Mexico, the epicentre of the latest outbreak, which was already struggling from the global financial crisis.
Mexican authorities have cancelled the traditional gatherings of workers to celebrate May Day, as the country went into a five-day holiday they hoped would minimise public contact and slow the viral spread down even more.
Restaurants, bars, tourist sites and other public venues remained closed in the capital and elsewhere.
"Stay at home with your family," President Felipe Calderon said in an address to the nation, which is officially on holiday until Tuesday.
All the confirmed deaths from the virus have occurred in Mexico except one, a Mexican toddler who died across the border in the United States.
US health officials said the number of infections there had hit 118, while a number of other nations -- including Britain, New Zealand and Germany -- reported new H1N1 cases.
Hong Kong reported its first confirmed case of swine flu, when the territory's Chief Executive Donald Tsang said a Mexican man who had tested positive. He had arrived in the territory on Thursday from Mexico via Shanghai.
Denmark also confirmed its first case although there were no immediate details available.
Among the latest cases revealed in Germany was that of a nurse who had treated a patient with the disease, but had not been to Mexico. The nurse subsequently recovered, authorities said.
Poland and Austria also reported new suspected swine flu cases, including that of a 29-year-old Pole who was hospitalised in Warsaw after returning from the United States where he spent time in a jail with Mexican inmates.
Spain's total of 13 infected people also includes one person who had not recently visited Mexico, but contracted the disease from his girlfriend, who had visited the country.
Most cases outside Mexico have involved only mild symptoms of the illness that can be easily treated with existing flu medicines, and some experts have suggested that the virus may have weakened as it was carried outside the country.
The WHO said it would not as yet invoke the highest health threat level -- what it calls phase six, meaning a worldwide pandemic is under way -- but kept it at phase five, indicating a pandemic is imminent.
The WHO's acting assistant director Keiji Fukuda said the virus was behaving like a typical influenza virus, meaning there could be an increase in cases in the southern hemisphere, which is about to enter winter.
"This is something we have to be on the watch out very carefully for," Fukuda said.
Authorities across the world have tightened travel restrictions and taken other measures to keep the virus from spreading.
Singapore invoked public health orders not used since the 2003 SARS crisis, ordering anyone arriving from Mexico to be quarantined for one week, while Israel began airport health inspections for those coming from Mexico.
Argentina and Cuba have both suspended flights to Mexico, while Peru has banned flights originating there.
However the United Nations reversed advice it gave to staff saying they should postpone travel to flu-hit countries.
Although it was initially dubbed swine flu, the WHO is now officially referring to it as Influenza A(H1N1), in part because the virus is not spread by contact with pigs but is transmitted from person to person.
The UN health body meanwhile said that it was examining its response to the outbreak in Mexico following accusations that it reacted too slowly, but defended its response.
"There are cases of influenza all the time, but once we knew that this illness was cause by a new influenza virus... we moved into operation within a matter of hours," WHO spokesman Thomas Abrahams told journalists.
Source: AFP Global Edition
