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No one has died outside
The swine flu bug is curable if treated quickly with antiviral medicine, but no one is naturally immune, and the WHO has lifted its pandemic alert to phase 4, indicating the risk of a deadly global outbreak.
"This can be interpreted as a significant step toward pandemic influenza, but also it is a phase which says that we are not there yet," acting WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda told a teleconference Monday.
Most Asian stock markets slipped into negative territory after tentative early gains, and the yen climbed to a seven-week high against the euro and a one-month high versus the dollar as investors cut their exposure to riskier currencies.
Drug stocks extended Monday's gains while airline stocks were hit once again. Oil dropped a further 1 percent, sinking below $50 a barrel.
TAKING ACTION
Governments around the world have taken steps to tighten monitoring of their airports or advised against nonessential travel to
The last pandemic, a
Mexicans – from company directors to delivery men on tricycles – wore face masks while airlines checked passengers for flu symptoms.
"We will defeat this threat," Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard vowed late Monday as several hundred people suspected to be suffering from the flu were treated in hospitals and life in the normally hectic capital took on an eerie hush.
Unsure how worried they should be, people stocked up on food, drinking water, rental movies and surgical masks and canceled hair appointments. Some opted to work from home and schools were closed across the country until May 6.
Facing a dent to tourism and trade – key motors of an economy that is already tipping into recession with the global downturn –
"Economic activity must continue," Labor Minister Javier Lozano told a news conference Monday evening.
NO VACCINE
Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year. The new strain is worrying as it spreads rapidly between humans and there is no vaccine for it.
Most of the fatalities have been people aged between 20 and 50, an ominous sign because a hallmark of past pandemics has been the high rate of fatalities among young adults.
Mexican media have speculated the flu may have originated at a pig farm in the tropical southeastern state of
But Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the first case that alerted authorities to a possible rogue flu strain was in the southern state of
Officials say the virus is not caught from eating pig meat products, but several countries banned
The heavy volume of visitors to
The flu crisis, which blew up over the weekend, also rocked financial markets Monday, hitting oil prices, the dollar,
Uncertainty over the swine flu outbreak could sour recent optimism that trillions of dollars injected into the world economy might soon start to slow the global downturn.