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Flu outbreak waning, says Mexico

MEXICO CITY: Mexican officials have declared the influenza A(H1N1) epidemic to be waning, but medical experts worldwide say it is to early to make that call.

Mexico began its first tentative steps toward normalcy, with Health Secretary Jose Cordova saying most businesses would reopen on Wednesday nationwide, citing ebb in the flu outbreak. Mr. Cordova also said Mexico had confirmed 727 cases, including 26 deaths.

Meanwhile, the virus spread to Colombia in the first confirmed case in South America, where flu season is about to begin. A New York City school that had closed after dozens of students were infected with the virus reopened on Monday.

More cases were confirmed in North America and Europe — including Portugal’s first — with the total number sickened worldwide rising to more than a 1,000 people, according to health and government officials.

But with the scope of the disease unknown, several countries have taken urgent measures against arriving Mexicans or those who have recently travelled to Mexico. Mexico chartered a plane on Monday to China to bring home 70 of its citizens who were quarantined in hospitals and hotels. In Hong Kong, 350 people remained isolated on Monday in a hotel after a Mexican traveller there was determined to have flu.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said a nationwide shutdown and an aggressive information campaign appeared to have helped curtail the outbreak there.

“We have succeeded in detaining or at least slowing the spread of the virus precisely because the measures have been the correct ones,” said Mr. Calderon in an interview with state television broadcast on Sunday night. — AP

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