The unique strain of swine flu found in seven people in California and Texas has been connected to the deadly flu that has broken out in Mexico, killing as many as 60 people, NBC News has confirmed.

The strain has never been seen before and is raising fears of a possible pandemic.

The World Health Organization said it was concerned at what it called hundreds of "influenza-like" cases in Mexico, and also about the confirmed outbreak of the new strain of swine flu in the United States.

Mexico canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding area on Friday after authorities noticed a higher number of flu-like deaths than normal in recent weeks.

"It is a virus that mutated from pigs and then at some point was transmitted to humans," Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told the Televisa network.

Pigs are seen as a possible intermediate host that can help avian flu viruses adapt to humans, because the epithelial cells in pigs' trachea can be infected by both avian and human flu viruses, the article notes. If avian and human viruses infected a pig at the same time, they could mix or reassort, giving rise to a novel strain that might be able to spread in humans.

They add that because H5N1 infections in swine increase the risk that a pandemic strain could emerge, the findings point up the need for "continuous surveillance and management of H5N1 viruses in pigs."

Originally posted by burntheships
reply to post by AshleyD

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That is what has got me concerned...all the reporting!

The number of flu cases in Mexico, coupled with the high frequency of clusters in California and Texas, raises concerns that the swine flu will spread worldwide and expand into a major pandemic.

WHO to Convene Emergency Meeting

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Friday that it was convening an emergency committee to advise whether outbreaks of swine flu in the United States and Mexico constituted an international public health threat.

"WHO will convene, sometime in the very near future, an emergency committee under the International Health Regulations, which will consider whether or not this event constitutes a public health event of international concern," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters in Geneva.

Hartl also said that 12 of 18 samples taken from victims in Mexico showed the virus had a genetic structure identical to that of the virus found in California. But more epidemiological information was needed before any change to the WHO's pandemic alert level, currently at '3' on a scale of 1 to 6.
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The World Health Organization said on Friday that it was convening an emergency committee to advise whether outbreaks of swine flu in the United States and Mexico constituted an international public health threat.

The White House is closely following the outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in the United States and President Barack Obama has been informed, an administration official said on Friday