At least 20 new cases of swine flu were confirmed in the United States and 10 reported in New Zealand today, as governments worldwide moved to to prevent the spread of the potentially deadly virus that has claimed more than 80 lives in Mexico, dpa reported. US authorities on Sunday declared a public health emergency, saying that in all, 20 new swine flu cases have been confirmed in five states. Officials said declaring the outbreak an emergency would help free up various agencies and resources to fight its spread. In New York, eight pupils at a private high school tested positive for the lethal swine flu virus, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday. More than 100 children at the St Francis Preparatory School in Queens had reported flu-like symptoms. The school was to remain closed Monday. Officials said all except one of the swine flu patients in the US had recovered from the virus that "looked to be the same as that reported in Mexico." In New Zealand, 10 teenage college students who tested positive for influenza a day after returning from a Spanish language study visit to Mexico, were reported Sunday to be likely to have swine flu. "Ministry of Health officials advise me there is no guarantee that these young people have swine flu, but officials believe it is highly likely that they do," Health Minister Tony Ryall told a news conference. He said 10 positive results for influenza A had been obtained from testing carried out on 13 students from Rangitoto College, Auckland, who showed some flu-like symptoms when they returned from Mexico early Saturday. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday declared the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern," a legal step that sent the alert worldwide, prompting several countries to react Sunday. The numbers of infections have been growing since mid-March, WHO officials said. Authorities in Mexico late Saturday reported 1,324 people admitted to hospital for tests. Unlike cases reported in Mexico, where health authorities were dealing with a new strain of the virus, the latest cases were reported as mild, with patients in the US and New Zealand making a recovery, according to officials. Governments world-wide on Sunday sought to prevent a possible spread with the introduction of measures centred around awareness and surveillance at borders. In Hong Kong, health officials stepped up border checks and airlines were asked to broadcast health advice on all direct flights from affected areas and passengers with symptoms asked to report to officers on arrival, the city's Centre for Health Protection said. Hong Kong already has stringent border health checks since the bird flu outbreak that killed six and infected 18 in 1997 and a SARS outbreak that killed 299 and infected 1,800 in 2003. Taiwan meanwhile ordered airport immigration checks on people arriving from affected countries tightened to prevent the possible influx of the virus. "Visitors from Mexico and the United States, including homecoming Taiwanese nationals found to have fever and flu symptoms will be sent to special hospitals for isolation, pending virus inspection," said Shih Wen-yi, spokesman of the Department of Health. All visitors would be required to go through a thermal-sensing device to check for fever. The government of Indonesian ordered health authorities at ports across the country to boost awareness to prevent a possible spread, a health ministry official said Sunday. Despite increasing concern over a possible swine flu pandemic, the government had yet to issue a travel warning for its citizens, the Director General for Disease Control, Tjandra Yoga Aditama said. "The WHO has yet to recommend specific measures to be taken in response to the flu, including travel warnings or bans. We can wait for such to be issued, but could also move on our own, we need to see how things progress," the state-run Antara quoted Aditama as saying. The WHO on Sunday admitted that it was still in the process of trying to understand the exact situation regarding the spreading swine flu as it analysed available information. The organization's International Health Regulation Committee was set to reconvene on Tuesday, said Keiji Fukuda, the Assistant Director-General for Health Security at WHO, "unless there is additional information that we should meet earlier." He noted that in the current situation "information does change on a fairly frequent basis," saying: "The picture is evolving," Fukuda said. He said the work done by health organizations and governments during the avian flu outbreak several years back was helping work on the current flu, as they developed "new tools" and "new defenses." In a conference call with reporters, Fukuda said the assessment of the situation was "serious" and "warrants the utmost attention" but maintained the alert status at its earlier 3 - denoting none, or very limited, human-to-human transmission - on its scale of 1 to 6. "If we go to phase 4 because of the swine flu virus that means we basically believe that it is a potential pandemic virus (which is) able to transmit from person to person and cause large outbreaks. If we go to five or 6 indicates that virus has ability and spreading around the world," Fukada explained. "The change from phase 3 to phase 4 is important," he added, saying that the WHO was "wanting to make sure we move in way that evidence supports." Swine flu normally is spread from animal to human, and the emergence of a human-to-human strain could mean the influenza could gain virulence quickly. Mexico City has closed schools, museums and other public gathering places and the Mexican Army has been distributing face masks to the population. President Felipe Calderon has authorized the secretary of health to isolate patients, inspect travellers and enter houses to fight the epidemic. On Saturday Nicaragua, Colombia and Brazil, hightened airport controls over people and goods arriving from Mexico. Experts were puzzled by the pattern that in Mexico, it was affecting mainly young adults and causing serious respiratory disease including pneumonia, while its effects in the US appeared milder and aimed at younger victims. Health officials said it is possible that US residents have developed some immunities through exposure to past waves of flu.
