US swine flu cases jump to 642
From correspondents in Washington
Agence France-Presse
May 07, 2009 07:25am
THE number of confirmed US swine flu cases surged by 60 per cent today to 642 from 403, with infections reported in three more states and the death toll now at two.
Forty-one US states are now reporting confirmed cases of (A)H1N1 flu, and the US death toll has gone up, with the first US citizen reported to have died from swine flu.
The victim was a woman in her thirties "with chronic underlying health conditions" who died in a Texas hospital on Tuesday.
"This reminds us that influenza can be a very serious infection and it's one that we need to continue to take very seriously," Richard Besser, acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which compiles the daily flu tally, said.
The death of the American woman was the second in the United States after a Mexican toddler died last month while visiting Texas.
It was also only the second death outside Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak, where the authorities on Wednesday upped the death toll from swine flu to 42 from 29, but insisted the worst of the epidemic was over.
Mr Besser, however, said he expected the virus to continue spreading in the United States and around the world, and fully expected the outbreak to become a pandemic.
"With the number of cases in other countries, I would be suprised if we don't get to level six" on the World Health Organization's six-phase pandemic alert scale, Mr Besser said as Poland and Sweden reported their first confirmed cases and other countries in Europe extended their tally of (A)H1N1 cases.
Mr Besser said there were around 850 probable cases - where a first test comes back positive for type A influenza - in 44 states.
Earlier this week, he said that the overwhelming majority of probable cases eventually become confirmed cases, meaning results of subsequent tests for the (A)H1N1 virus have come back positive.