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Mexico fights swine flu with 'pandemic potential'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-26 10:22

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's president assumed new powers Saturday to isolate people infected with a deadly swine flu strain as authorities struggled to contain an outbreak that world health officials warned could become a global epidemic.

New cases of swine flu were confirmed in Kansas and California and suspected in New York City, but health officials said they didn't know whether it was the strain that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and likely sickened 1,324 since April 13.

Mexico fights swine flu with 'pandemic potential'
A woman and her baby wear face masks in Mexico City on April 24, 2009. [Agencies] 
Mexican soldiers and health workers patrolled airports and bus stations as they tried to corral people who may be infected with the swine flu, as it became clearer that the government may have been slow to respond to the outbreak in March and early April.

Now, even detaining the ill may not keep the strain -- a combination of swine, bird and human influenza that people may have no natural immunity to -- from spreading, epidemiologists say.

The World Health Organization on Saturday asked countries around the world to step up reporting and surveillance of the disease and implement a coordinated response to contain it.

Two dozen new suspected cases were reported in Mexico City alone, where authorities suspended schools and all public events until further notice. More than 500 concerts, sporting events and other gatherings were canceled in the metropolis of 20 million.

The Mexican government issued a decree authorizing President Felipe Calderon to invoke special powers letting the Health Department isolate patients and inspect homes, incoming travelers and baggage.

Officials said the decree gives clear legal authority to Health Department workers who might otherwise face reprisals.

At Mexico City's international airport, health workers passed out written questionnaires seeking to identify passengers with flu symptoms. Surgical masks and brochures were handed out at bus and subway stations. The US embassy in Mexico posted a message advising US citizens to avoid large crowds, shaking hands, greeting people with a kiss or using the subway.

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But with confirmed swine flu cases in at least six states -- and possibly as many as 14 -- the efforts seemed unlikely to stop the spread of the disease.

Particularly difficult in a metropolis as crowded as Mexico City was the embassy's advice to maintain "a distance of at least 6 feet from other persons may decrease the risk of exposure."

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the outbreak of the never-before-seen virus has "pandemic potential." But she said it is still too early to tell if it would become a pandemic.

"The situation is evolving quickly," Chan said in Geneva. "A new disease is by definition poorly understood."

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