Germany becomes 8th country to confirm swine flu

Germany confirmed its first case of swine flu on Wednesday, the eighth country where the virus has been found, but reported deaths remained confined to Mexico nearly a week after the threat of a pandemic emerged. Mexico's government says up to 159 people have been killed by the virus there. Cases of swine flu have also been confirmed in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Israel, Britain, Spain and Germany, which said a man who recently returned from holiday in Mexico had tested positive for the new H1N1 strain. The World Health Organization said it may raise its pandemic alert level to phase 5 -- the second highest -- if it was confirmed that infected people in at least two countries were spreading the new disease to other people in a sustained way. But with no deaths outside Mexico so far, Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director for health security and environment, said it could be a "very mild pandemic," adding, however, that influenza "moves in ways we cannot predict." Stock markets in Asia and Europe rose on Wednesday, partly on optimism the world could be spared a major deadly pandemic. Considerable uncertainty remained. "The sentiment is not one of panic but that of caution," said Alex Wong, director with Ample Finance Group in Hong Kong. "There is no indication on how bad the situation may get, so investors are guarded about taking new positions."