【SMH】Mexican epidemic 'not so aggressive'

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Mexican epidemic 'not so aggressive'
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/mexican-epidemic-not-so-aggressive-20090502-aqde.html

May 2, 2009 - 6:34AM

The swine flu epidemic in Mexico is "not so aggressive" as initially feared, the government said on Friday as it gave a new confirmed toll of 15 dead and 328 people infected based on lab tests.

"Fortunately the virus is not so aggressive - it's not a case of avian flu, which had a mortality rate of nearly 70 per cent," Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told a news conference.

He said the H1N1 flu virus, while far more contagious than avian flu, was easily treated with anti-viral medicine "if treatment is given from the first day".

The previous flu toll given on Thursday was 12 dead and 300 infected.

Cordova said the new count given on Friday did not represent new cases coming in but rather testing and analysis of a backlog of "probable" cases.

The new tally represented a sharp downward revision from figures given by Cordova at the height of the flu emergency earlier this week, when he spoke of 159 "probable" deaths.

That count, coupled with the spread of the H1N1 swine flu to a dozen other countries, prompted the World Health Organisation to warn on Wednesday that a pandemic was "imminent".

Cordova noted that the flu virus was also not as dangerous as the epidemic of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, that swept through China and 30 other countries in 2003, killing more than 800 people worldwide.

"This (H1N1 flu) virus is considered less deadly and the experience is that we are showing the reality," he said.


© 2009 AFP