MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – New swine flu infections were found around the world yesterday and the spectre of a pandemic began to hit the travel industry as governments warned people to stay away from Mexico where 149 people have died.
The United States said it now had 65 cases of swine flu, Canada announced six more infections and new cases were also confirmed in Israel and New Zealand.
The United States, Canada and the European Union advised people to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico, and Cuba suspended all flights to and from Mexico for 48 hours.
Carnival Cruises said it cancelled stops at Mexican ports for three of its ships yesterday and the Canadian tour operator Transat AT postponed flights to Mexico until June 1 due to the swine flu alert.
Private companies also adopted their own travel restrictions not just to Mexico but also to countries where cases have been confirmed.
President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Congress for $1.5 billion to finance its response to the flu threat, and California declared a state of emergency, allowing it to deploy more resources to prevent new infections.
The World Health Organization said a pandemic — a global outbreak of a serious new illness — is not yet inevitable but that all countries should prepare for the worst, especially poorer developing nations.
“They really get hit disproportionally hard,” said WHO acting assistant director-general Dr. Keiji Fukuda.
One of the mysteries of the outbreak is why the virus has killed scores of people in Mexico but all of the cases outside the country have been relatively mild.
Experts say this may be simply a matter of where they have been looking to find it and officials say they expect to find deaths as the disease spreads.
A pandemic could snuff out fragile signs of economic recovery around the world as travel, trade and manufacturing output would all be hit.
The last flu pandemic was in 1968, when “Hong Kong” flu killed about 1 million people around the world.
Spain and Britain also have confirmed cases of the new swine flu, and many other countries have suspected infections.
Mexico City is at the centre of the outbreak and many residents are staying in their homes while schools, churches, cinemas and restaurants have all been shut down.
Airline share prices declined again yesterday on fears that they could see a sharp drop in traffic.
European and Asian stock markets retreated, but better-than-expected U.S. consumer confidence data provided some relief and U.S. shares made gains.
Oil edged below $50 a barrel and investors cut their exposure to riskier currencies.
The virus is not caught from eating pig meat products but several countries, led by Russia and China, banned U.S. pork imports. The EU said it has no plans to restrict pig meat products from the United States.
“Markets are doing what they tend to do, taking fright,” said Howard Wheeldon, strategist at BGC Partners in London. “But in my view, it’s totally unnecessary.”
Britain, France, Germany, Canada and the United States issued travel alerts for Mexico, which relies on tourism as a main source of foreign currency. Japan advised its citizens in Mexico to consider returning home soon.
U.K. travel firms Thomson Holidays and First Choice said they decided to repatriate their customers from Mexico and to cancel flights bound for Cancun yesterday. British Airways said it would continue to operate its services.
Private companies stepped up precautions, restricting travel to Mexico and some other countries with confirmed cases and advising staff on how to protect themselves.
Honda Motor Co, which like most major auto makers has production facilities in Mexico, has suspended all global business travel until at least May 6.
China promised to disclose any cases promptly. State-run newspapers urged officials to be open and avoid the kind of cover-up that brought panic during the SARS epidemic in 2003.
Experts say that while it is impossible to stop the spread of the new disease, efforts to slow its progress could buy crucial time for countries to procure essential drugs.
The WHO’s Fukuda said a mild pandemic is possible but he also cautioned that the 1918 “Spanish” flu that killed tens of millions of people emerged from mild beginnings.
Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year.
In Mexico, people from company directors to couriers wore face masks while airlines checked passengers for flu symptoms.
“We will defeat this threat,” Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said 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.
Mexico has shut all schools across the country until at least May 6 and in the capital, restaurants, bars, cinemas, stadiums have been ordered closed to limit new infections.
Streets lined with trendy terrace cafes and restaurants in an upscale neighborhood were silent as city officials ordered eateries to close or only serve take-away customers.
“It’s just weird. And tips are where we make our money so with nobody coming in it’s terrible,” said waitress Pamela Espana, 28, behind a counter of untouched salads and pastries.
Unsure how worried they should be, people stocked up on food, drinking water, rental movies and surgical masks. Some opted to work from home.
Facing damage to tourism and trade — motors of an economy that is already in recession from the global downturn — Mexico said it would not order a mass closure of businesses.
