Swine flu spreads to Asia

MEXICO CITY. May 2. KAZINFORM The first case of swine flu was confirmed in Asia yesterday as health experts said a vaccine should be ready in a matter of months and Mexico said the virus was not as aggressive as originally feared, Kazinform refers to The Arab News.

Confirmation by the authorities in Hong Kong that a traveler from Mexico tested positive for the H1N1 influenza A virus saw an entire hotel quarantined and sent shivers through the territory which was at the center of the 2003 SARS crisis. Denmark also joined the list of affected countries while more cases emerged of victims contracting the virus even though they had not traveled to Mexico. The Mexican government raised its confirmed toll to 15 dead and 328 people infected as the country began a five-day shutdown to halt the virus? spread. 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 epicenter 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 reporters. He said the H1N1 flu virus, while far more contagious than avian flu, was easily treated with antiviral medicine ?if treatment is given from the first day", Kazinform cites The Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.