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News Americas

Costa Rica confirms H1N1 death

The president asked for calm saying the health system was prepared to deal with the disease [EPA] Costa Rica has confirmed its first fatality from the H1N1 strain of influenza that has spread to 25 countries since emerging in Mexico last month. Maria Luisa Avila, the country's health minister, confirmed that a 53-year-old man who died on Saturday had the H1N1 flu virus. The man died from complications of a chronic lung disease, Avila said. He was one of eight H1N1 flu cases in the Central American country that have been confirmed by the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Mexico has recorded 48 H1N1 flu deaths, two have been reported in the US and Canadian officials say a woman who died on Friday had the virus. Most people infected with the new strain - believed to be a hybrid of swine, bird and human influenza viruses - have either travelled to Mexico or been close to someone who has, but it is not the case with all of them. US overtakes Mexico In the United States, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reported a jump in the number of confirmed cases from 896 sufferers to 1,639 in 43 states. In video Global recession limits impact of H1N1 virus Philippines boxing hero in flu quarantine The US has now overtaking its southern neighbour Mexico, which put its confirmed cases at 1,319 on Friday. The US centre said the increase had been expected after a backlog of laboratory tests was cleared. "We do expect to see the numbers climbing," Dave Daigle, a spokesman for the centre, said. Barack Obama, the US president, said he was cautiously optimistic that the outbreak would not be as bad as originally feared. "We are seeing that the virus may not have been as virulent as we at first feared," he said at the White House. "But we are not out of the woods yet. We still have to take precautions." Cases jump The repoort of the confirmed death in Costa Rica comes a day after Panama confirmed a case of the virus and Guatemala reportedit had two people who had caught the disease. Rosario Turner, the Panamanian health minister, said the unidentified youth, who arrived in the country on a flight from the United States, was in quarantine. "He is receiving treatment and his condition is stable and does not require hospitalisation," she said. Brazil confirmed on Friday its first case of of the influenza H1N1 transmitted from person to person within the country. Jose Gomes Temporao, the Brazilian health minister, said a new case, one of two found on Friday, was "up to now the only case of person-to-person transmission (of the virus) in Brazil." The discovery brought to six the total number of cases of the virus detected in Latin America's largest nation. Australia hit Australia also reported on Saturday its first case of new flu strain, after a woman tested positive for the disease as she returned from a trip to the United States, the government said. Japan's health ministry said on Saturday a teacher and two students tested positive for H1N1 in the first confirmed cases of the virus in Japan. The three, including a man in his 40s and two teenagers from Osaka, arrived at Tokyo's Narita international airport on Friday from Detroit, the ministry said. "We confirmed the first case of the new type influenza in Japan," said Atsushi Kitamura, a health ministry spokesman. They were then taken to hospital, where further tests were conducted, he said. Kyodo News said all three who tested positive were male. Despite Friday's developments, the World Health Organisation (WHO) kept its alert level at five, indicating that a pandemic is "imminent" rather than actually taking place. Although the virus has been confirmed in 25 countries across the world, the vast majorities of cases have been in North America. Jason Fieldhouse