US cases of swine flu top 5,000 with six deaths

Published: May 19, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government reported Monday more than 400 new cases of swine flu to take the nation’s total number of infections above 5,000, and said it remained on guard for an autumn upsurge.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the number of confirmed and probable cases in 47 states plus Washington’s District of Columbia now stood at 5,123, up from 4,714 on Friday.
A teacher at a New York school who had been in critical condition for days died Sunday after being infected with the A(H1N1) virus, taking the US death toll to six.
Only Mexico has suffered more deaths from the disease.
The CDC has downgraded a travel warning for Mexico but Anne Schuchat, director of the agency’s Centre for immunization and respiratory diseases, took issue with media reporting that is now playing down the outbreak.
“The H1N1 virus is not going away, despite what you may have heard,” she told reporters, stressing that the number of confirmed cases in the United States may be only the “tip of the iceberg.”
“Unfortunately based on the trends we’re seeing, we do expect more illness, more hospitalisations, and more deaths,” Schuchat said, with more than 200 people already requiring hospital treatment in the United States.
The official backed the actions of New York authorities, where 12 schools around the city had been temporarily closed after suspicious outbreaks, forcing 11,000 children to miss classes.
“We cannot stop the virus from spreading. We should not be surprised to see more cases,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned.

This news was published in print paper. To access the complete paper of this day. click here