Swine Flu

By Andrew Quinn Andrew Quinn – 2 hrs 28 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Up to 41 people in five states have been sickened by new strain of swine flu that doctors fear may cause a pandemic, U.S. officials said on Monday, promising more cases to come.

Nervous investors sent U.S. stock prices tumbling on expectations that the flu outbreak could further undermine the economy, which is struggling in recession.

President Barack Obama told Americans he was monitoring the situation amid more bad news from southern neighbor Mexico, where up to 149 people have died and more than 1,600 have been infected by the never-before-seen virus.

The U.S. government declared the flu strain a public health emergency on Sunday.

No American deaths have been reported and most of those affected by the virus had light symptoms, recovering fast. But it has popped up in New York, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California as well as Canada and Europe, raising fears of a pandemic.

"This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert. But it is not a cause for alarm," Obama told a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said more than 100 sick students at a high school in Queens were being tested and that 45 were confirmed or likely cases of swine flu.

"We believe that there are probably more than 100 cases of swine flu at the school and lab tests are confirming what we have suspected," he told a news conference.

"This is in no way an indication of a change in the size of the population that is affected," Bloomberg said.

A first case was confirmed in northern California, where a student was found with the virus at a Catholic school in a Sacramento suburb. The school was closed. Seven other cases confirmed in the state earlier were in the south close to the Mexican border.

Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said inspections were being boosted at U.S. borders and airports, while the national stockpile of antiviral drugs was being activated and should be fully deployed by May 3.

SURVEILLANCE INCREASING

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acting director Dr. Richard Besser said the rising New York total represented additional testing of the affected students, not ongoing transmission.

But he said officials expect to see more cases and possibly more severe infections as surveillance intensifies.

"I wouldn't rest on the fact that we have only seen cases in this country that are less severe. I would expect that the spectrum of disease would expand," Besser told a news briefing.

"This virus is acting like a flu virus and flu viruses spread from person to person," he said.

Besser said officials did not believe that any of the existing flu vaccines would be effective against the new strain. The CDC has been starting the groundwork to make a new vaccine.

The virus is widely being called swine flu although it has components of classic avian, human and swine flu viruses and has not actually been seen in pigs.

Despite that, six countries banned the import of meat and pork products from some parts of the United States, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said, saying the bans "do not appear to be based on scientific evidence."

The meat bans -- which followed a warning by the European Union health chief against travelers visiting areas hit by swine flu -- looked likely to fuel concern of wider U.S. economic impact from the flu outbreak

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. Treasury was looking at potential fallout, although it was too early to put any numbers on it.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged caution over travel to Mexico, a possible blow for Mexico's tourist industry.

Across much of the United States, the fears were local. In Texas, officials confirmed a third case of swine flu at a school in Guadalupe County near San Antonio and closed all 14 schools and two district facilities in the region until further notice.

(Reporting by Sue Pleming, Robert Rampton, Dan Whitcomb, Chris Baltimore, Michelle Nichols, Julie Steenhuysen, Maggie Fox; editing by David Storey)