Swine Flu

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico first noticed a strange new flu virus after a woman died in the southern state of Oaxaca on April 13, but investigators are far from discovering the origin of an outbreak that has spread throughout the world.

Possible cases of the new H1N1 swine flu have been found in several locations in Mexico hundreds of miles apart from as early as mid-March, complicating the search for the source of the epidemic that his killed 149 people in Mexico.

The flu, a novel mixture of DNA from avian, swine and human viruses, appeared in Mexico in recent weeks in Oaxaca, Veracruz near the Gulf Coast, Baja California on the U.S. border and the central state of San Luis Potosi.

And independently of the cases that Mexican doctors began to see, two children in California became sick with what later turned out to be swine flu at the end of last month.
"Where did the virus come from? We don't know. Did someone come from California or did someone go from Mexico to California? We don't have that information," Health Minister Jose Cordova said.

Many of the confirmed swine flu cases in Mexico and the United States are genetically identical, the World Health Organization says.

Experts say the illness likely emerged in a pig infected with avian and human flu strains.

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