Mexico gets back to normal, China eases quarantine
Thu, 07 May 2009, MEXICO CITY

Mexicans were returning to normal life on Thursday after a five-day business shutdown due to the H1N1 flu virus, with China also easing quarantine measures even as the virus spread in Europe.

Mexico raised its confirmed death toll from the swine flu outbreak to 42 from 29, but the government says the worst is over and has eased curbs on commercial and public activity.

The H1N1 virus, which has killed a woman and a child in the United States, has reached 24 countries and infected more than 2,000 people, according to data from the World Health Organization and national authorities.

Sweden and Poland confirmed their first cases on Wednesday.

The new flu, a mixture of swine viruses and elements of human and bird flu, has taken the world to the brink of a pandemic and stoked trade and diplomatic tensions as some nations, most prominently China, quarantined Mexican citizens and products.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon accused these countries of "ignorance." They included Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, which turned away a Mexican aid shipment of maize, wheat, beans and medicines, Calderon said.

On Thursday, China began lifting a seven-day quarantine for passengers on a flight from Mexico City which included a man who tested positive for H1N1, the Health Ministry said.

The dozens of Mexicans had been caught up in a wider drama about how far governments could go to stifle fears the virus could creep across their borders. The spat briefly strained warming ties between Mexico and China.

China's official Xinhua news agency also said 25 Canadian students had been released from quarantine in northeastern Changchun. None of the students had shown flu symptoms.

"FORCED VACATION"

Traffic again clogged Mexico's sprawling capital, home to 20 million people, and taco vendors worked the sidewalks again as Mexicans emerged from was described as "a forced vacation."

Security guards ran heat scanners over office workers to check they were free of fever, one of the flu's symptoms, as they returned to work. City officials said bars, restaurants, stadiums and cinemas will reopen on Thursday.

"It still feels strange because there aren't many customers," said restaurant cook Rosa Avila.

U.S. health authorities remained on the alert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting 642 confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu in 44 states.

The new virus appears to act like a seasonal flu but has confused doctors because it has also killed some young and apparently healthy adults in Mexico. Influenza normally has a much higher death rate for the old, very young and frail.

"The risk of complacency, or a sense that we have weathered this, is a serious one," Stephen Redd, the CDC's director of Influenza Coordination, said in Atlanta.

He also warned about the risk of a resurgence in the northern autumn.

The confirmed U.S. cases showed a nearly 60 percent rise from Tuesday. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said more hospitalizations and deaths were likely.

For authorities worldwide, the question remained how far the virus would spread and how serious would it be. The WHO is at alert level 5. A level 6 alert would mean a full pandemic.

Poland's first case was found in a 58-year-old woman, but her condition was not serious. Sweden's first case was in a person recently returned from the United States.

If the WHO detects a sustained spread within Europe -- as in North America -- it could officially declare a pandemic.

WHO experts will meet next week to consider whether drug makers should switch from seasonal to pandemic flu production in response to the new H1N1 strain.

U.S. regulators approved a new flu vaccine manufacturing plant to boost not only production of seasonal flu shots, but also possible vaccines to protect against H1N1.

PORK BANS CRITICISED

The flu has prompted some 20 nations to ban imports of pigs, pork and meat products from Mexico, the United States and Canada, which in protest have urged the world not to use the crisis as a reason to create "unnecessary trade restrictions."

"H1N1 human influenza viruses are not spread by food," their agriculture ministers said in a joint statement.

But the WHO said on Wednesday meat from pigs infected with the new H1N1 virus should not be eaten by humans.

Mexico fears the outbreak will knock up to half a percentage point off its growth this year. Mexican pork producers said they had lost $38 million in sales.

Source: REUTERS