Costa Rica Holds At 8 Confirmed Cases of
Swine Flu
Two Mexicans Detained
In "Heli-Coca" Investigation
Caribbean On Yellow
Alert As Heavy Rains
Cause First Floods of The Season
Higher Unemployment
For 2009 Predicted
ICE Ends Grace
Period For Paying Telephone Bill
Growth In
Eco-tourism Expected In Costa Rica
Costa Rican
Nuts Help In Living Longer
Costa Rica
Holds At 8 Confirmed Cases of Swine Flu
Although the World Health Organization (WHO)
reports that the number of infections of the
AH1N1 flu has risen in several countries,
including Spain, Britain, Panama, Guatemala
and Colombia, the number of confirmed cases
in Costa Rica has held at 8.
Costa Rican health officials say that since
the outbreak on April 24 there have been
more than 800 reports of suspected cases, of
which the majority have been discarded. Last
Saturday, Costa Rica reported the first
death resulting from the flu, after a 53
year old infected man could not fight off
complications from pneumonia and diabetes.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has
raised the flu alert level to 5 out of 6 as
a result of its spread beyond the disease
epicenter Mexico, signaling that a pandemic
is imminent.
She is looking for evidence the hybrid
strain is spreading in sustained way in
communities outside of the Americas before
raising that alert to 6 and declaring a
pandemic is under way.
According to the latest WHO count, Spain has
98 confirmed cases and Britain has 68.
While most of those infections have been
deemed "imported" cases as a result of
people traveling to Mexico, or being in
close contact with those who had, WHO
experts are watching both countries closely
for signs the virus has taken hold in
Europe.
North America continues to have the largest
number of confirmed H1N1 infections
worldwide.
Mexico has 2,059 cases confirmed in WHO
labs, the United States has 3,009 and Canada
has 358.
Other countries have the following number of
WHO-confirmed flu cases without deaths:
Argentina 1
Australia 1
Austria 1
Brazil 8
Britain 68
China 3
Colombia 6
Cuba 1
Denmark 1
El Salvador 4
Finland 2
France 13
Germany 12
Guatemala 3
Ireland 1
Israel 7
Italy 9
Japan 4
Netherlands 3
New Zealand 7
Norway 2
Panama 29
Poland 1
Portugal 1
South Korea 3
Spain 98
Sweden 2
Switzerland 1
Thailand 2) |
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