US closes 100 schools as swine flu spreads

WASHINGTON - The swine flu outbreak began taking a toll on the US overnight, spreading to 11 states and closing schools amid confirmation of the first US death - a Mexican toddler who was visiting Texas with his family.

In California, dozens of Marines were confined after one came down with the disease.

Some 100 schools were closed, and more might need to be shut down temporarily, President Barack Obama said, declaring, "This obviously is a serious situation."

Swine flu death toll

The total confirmed cases in the US rose to nearly 100, with many more suspected.

The Geneva-based World Health Organisation sounded its own ominous alarm, raising its alert level to one notch below a full-fledged global pandemic.

Said WHO Director General Margaret Chan: "It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic."

Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta there were confirmed cases in ten states, including 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California. In other swine flu news.

The CDC also counted scattered cases in Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.

State officials in Maine said laboratory tests had confirmed three cases in that state, not yet included in the CDC count.

And the Pentagon said a Marine at the Twentynine Palms base in California had been confirmed to be ill with swine flu and was isolated, along with his roommate.

A Marine spokesman at the Pentagon, Major David Nevers, said the sick Marine was doing well and his condition continued to improve. Nevers said about 30 others who had been in contact with the sick Marine would be held apart for five days as well as to see if they show symptoms.

In Mexico, where the flu is believed to have originated, officials said Wednesday that the disease was now suspected in 159 deaths - though the WHO has so far confirmed only seven were from swine flu - and nearly 2,500 illnesses.

The first death in the United States from the flu was a Mexico City toddler who travelled to Texas with his family to visit relatives.

Texas' health director, Dr David Lakey, told a news conference that it was "highly likely" that the boy contracted the disease in Mexico before his trip to the US.

Officials in Brownsville were trying to trace his family's trip to find out how long they were in the area, who they visited and how many people were in the group, said Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos.

The boy, who was 23 months old, had "underlying health issues" before he flew to Matamoros, Mexico, on April 4 and crossed into Brownsville to visit relatives, state health officials said.

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