April 25, 2009
Swine flu kills humans in Mexico
A unique strain of swine flu is the suspected killer of dozens of people in Mexico, where authorities closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in the capital on Friday to try to contain an outbreak that has spurred concerns of a global flu epidemic.
The worrisome new virus - which combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before - also sickened at least eight people in Texas and California, though there have been no death.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified swine influenza as a potential source of a human flu pandemic. The U.N. health agency said hundreds of cases of suspected swine flu - which regularly hits pigs but rarely affects humans - have been reported in Mexico.
The WHO said the virus is being described in the United States as a new subtype of A/H1N1. Mexico has so far not said anything about the virus.
Most of the Mexican cases were found in healthy young adults with no known record of prior illness.
