New flu kills 68 in Mexico, reaches US

The outbreak of a new flu virus which has killed sixty eight people in Mexico has now reached the US, infecting at least eight Americans. Top US health officials in the State of California have announced that at least eight Americans have been infected by the new strain of the 'largely mysterious' swine flu and the number is expected to rise. Schools and educational centers in the Capital Mexico City were closed and hospitals were put on alert earlier on Thursday with the Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova telling reporters "We're dealing with a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic that so far is controllable." Health authorities in the United States have warned of a fast-catching viral syndrome capable of delivering mortal blows to the sufferers. Gil Chavez, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the California Department of Public Health, said on Friday, "We are watching this very closely. It's largely a mystery. It's very unusual whenever you have as many as even six cases (of swine flu), that's very, very rare." "There's evidence of possible human-to-human transmission going on, so the more we look the more we are likely to find," Reuters quoted him as saying. "This is something we believe we identified early and have responded to very aggressively and we are taking every step necessary to solve the mystery," he went on to say. California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger also recommended his fellow citizens to take "common-sense" and refrain from unnecessary physical contacts with dubious cases- - a precautionary measure also promoted in the Latin American State of Mexico. In addition, Schwarzenegger asked for more federal flu experts from the US Centers for Disease Control. California has, moreover, launched a Joint Emergency Operations Center with Mexican officials in a concerted effort to contain the lethal infection from developing into a full-blown epidemic. The World Health Organization has ruled out the need to shut Mexico's borders despite over 1,000 cases of registered patients. The highly contagious disease follows earlier symptoms of harsh respiratory symptoms before killing its victim.