MEXICO CITY — The swine flu epidemic spread deeper into the United States, Europe and Latin America — and in Canada, back to pigs — even as Mexico’s health chief hinted Sunday it may soon be time to reopen businesses and schools in the nation where the outbreak likely began.
The virus spread to Colombia in the first confirmed case in South America, worrisome because flu season is about to begin in the Southern Hemisphere. More cases were confirmed in Europe and North America; health officials said at least 937 people have been sickened worldwide.
Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said swine flu is spreading just as easily as regular winter flu.
“The good news is when we look at this virus right now, we’re not seeing some of the things in the virus that have been associated in the past with more severe flu,” Besser said. “That’s encouraging, but it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet.”
On Sunday, health officials raised the number of confirmed U.S. swine flu cases to 244 in 34 states. The new number, up from 160 on Saturday, reflects streamlining in federal procedures and the results of tests by states, which have only recently begun confirming cases, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC.
Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said the virus that has killed 19 people in Mexico and sickened at least 506 apparently peaked there between April 23 and April 28. A drastic nationwide shutdown appears to have helped prevent the outbreak from becoming more serious, he said.
“The evolution of the epidemic is now in its declining phase,” Cordova declared.
He said officials would decide today whether to extend the shutdown or allow schools and businesses to reopen on Wednesday.
A Foreign Relations Department official says Mexico will send a plane to China to bring back citizens who were quarantined while traveling after the Asian country isolated more than 70 Mexican travelers.
Pablo Kuri, an epidemiologist advising Cordova, said Sunday that tests have confirmed a swine flu death in Mexico City on April 11, two days earlier than what had been believed to be the first death.
He also said there have been no deaths among health care workers treating patients, an indication that the virus may not be as contagious or virulent as initially feared.
Officials in New Mexico announced Sunday that 14 schools in four towns were being closed for a week, and 10 public schools in the border city of Nogales, Ariz., canceled classes this week after students tested positive for swine flu.
In the Canadian province of Alberta, officials quarantined about 220 pigs that became infected from a worker who had recently returned from Mexico — the first documented case of the H1N1 virus passing from a human to another species.
