Swine flu spread signals global pandemic contry officials on high alert

Barack Obama sought an extra $1.5bn from Congress on Tuesday as the US sharply stepped up its response to the growing spread of swine flu from Mexico around the world.
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The US president called for a substantial increase in funding to help build stockpiles of antiviral drugs, work on vaccines and strengthen international co-operation as other countries escalated measures against a likely global pandemic.

The US said the number of infections had risen to 64 across five states including likely transmission between people outside Mexico, while Israel and New Zealand reported the first confirmed cases in Asia and the Middle East regions. Mexico remained the only country with deaths - the government said it suspected that 159 had died.

In a sign of tensions between national governments and international organisations, Japan cancelled visa-free travel from Mexico, and the US, the European Union and a number of other governments advised against non-essential travel to Mexico, despite advice from the World Health Organisation that it would do little to prevent spread of the virus.

China Sports Daily said the national diving team, which won seven of the eight gold medals at last year’s Beijing Olympics, would not take part in the FINA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale from May 7-10 because of swine flu concerns.

Tensions between Moscow and Washington also intensified, with the US embassy in Moscow arguing there was “no evidence” to support a partial ban on American meat sparked by the outbreak, while the Russian veterinary watchdog said the US was “protecting the interests of their exporters”.

As concerns over a pandemic continued to affect the financial markets, Moody’s estimated in a research note on Tuesday that the global macroeconomic impact of a mild flu pandemic could cost 1.4m lives and reduce global gross domestic product by 0.8 per cent or $330bn.

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