Mexico, US, Canada announce swine flu deaths

[May 26, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Authorities in Mexico announced three more swine flu deaths and the United States and Canada one more death each as the world's largest vaccine maker signed a deal with the United States to produce a swine flu vaccine.

The World Health Organization says at least 46 countries have confirmed more than 12,950 swine flu cases. The Mexican death toll now stands at 83, and Canada's is two. The U.S. death is the 12th in the country.

The tiny nation of Bahrain, meanwhile, reported Tuesday that a 20-year-old student had come down with mild swine flu -- the first case in a Gulf Arab country. Puerto Rico and the Czech Republic both reported their cases on Monday.

Sanofi Pasteur said Monday it has won a $190 million order from the United States government to make a swine flu vaccine.

Sanofi Pasteur, which operates flu vaccine production plants at Swiftwater, Pa., and in Val de Reuil in France, said it is also talking to other governments about their vaccine needs.

The company is awaiting a seed virus to be used in vaccine production from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and could begin commercial production in June.

Mexico unveiled a $90 million campaign aimed at luring back tourists to the country where the illness has hit hardest. The government-funded push will feature ads with opera singer Placido Domingo, champion golfer Lorena Ochoa and other national heroes.

Tourism is Mexico's third-largest source of legal foreign income, but worries over swine flu have sent hotel occupancy rates to a record low.

In the U.S., federal health authorities have confirmed 6,700 swine flu cases, most of them mild. But New York health officials reported another death over the weekend.

Dr. Damon Arnold, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health said the latest victim, a Chicago-area resident, had other medical conditions, but authorities released no other information about the person.

In Canada, officials said Monday that a Toronto man who had swine flu but also suffered a chronic medical condition died Saturday.

In the Mexican port of Veracruz, a sculptor was putting the finishing touches on a bronze statue of a 5-year-old boy who is the country's earliest confirmed case of swine flu. The boy, Edgar Hernandez, recovered after being treated with antibiotics, and state officials said the statue will be a symbol of hope.

A spokesman for Veracruz state, Jorge Brandy, said the statue would be erected in La Gloria, a pig-farming village in the mountains, where scientists trying to learn where the epidemic began are taking blood samples from residents and pigs.

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On the Net:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/

[Associated Press]

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