Mexican boy first U.S. flu death, more cases reported

A Mexican toddler in Texas has died of the H1N1 flu strain, the first confirmed death outside Mexico from a virus which health officials fear could cause a pandemic as it spread to two more countries in Europe.

Nearly a week after the threat emerged in Mexico, where up to 159 people have died, U.S. officials said on Wednesday a 23-month-old boy had died in the state bordering Mexico.

A Houston city health official said the baby was Mexican, fell ill two weeks ago in the U.S. border town of Brownsville and died in a Houston hospital.

"It is important for everyone to know that while the death occurred here in Houston ... this child is a resident of Mexico who traveled to Texas to visit family," said Dr. David Persse, Houston emergency medical services director. He said the boy's family "are healthy and well and have not had any symptoms."

Richard Besser, acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he expected more bad news even though most of the 65 U.S. cases of swine flu were mild.

"We're going to find more cases. We're going to find more severe cases and I expect that we'll continue to see additional deaths," he said.

President Barack Obama, who on Tuesday asked for $1.5 billion in emergency funding to fight the disease, said the death showed it was time to take "utmost precautions" against the virus.

Germany reported its first three infections and Austria one, taking to nine the number of countries known to be affected.

TOURISM HIT

France said it would seek on Thursday a European Union ban on flights to Mexico because of the influenza outbreak. Argentina and Cuba have already banned them.

The EU, the United States and Canada have advised against non-essential travel to the popular tourist destination.

Like the toddler in the United States, all seven new cases in Europe had recently been in Mexico.

They comprised a Bavarian couple in their 30s, a 22-year-old woman from Hamburg, a 28-year-old Austrian, now recovering, and three Britons with mild symptoms - adults in London and Birmingham and a girl aged 12 in southwest England.

Cases have been confirmed in Canada, New Zealand, Israel and Spain. In the United States, a state health official in Massachusetts confirmed that two children had tested positive for the virus.

The World Health Organization said it might raise its pandemic alert level to phase five - the second highest - if it were confirmed that infected people in at least two countries were spreading the disease to other people in a sustained way.

Before the U.S. death was reported, Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director for health security and environment, said it could be a "very mild pandemic," adding, however, that influenza "moves in ways we cannot predict."