Virus, Swine Flu | featured news

Hong Kong will quarantine about 300 hotel guests and staff for a week after a guest was found to have the A/H1N1 flu virus.

A late afternoon tally by the U.S. Department of Education found that 298 schools around the country had shut down for a few days, triple the number that had been closed on Wednesday. The closings affected about 172,000 students, leaving parents scrambling to find alternative day care arrangements.

At least 74 elementary, junior high and high schools have closed across the country because of confirmed or probable cases of swine flu, the Department of Education said Wednesday.

The swine flu outbreak has claimed its first victim in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Contro and Preventionl: A 23-month old child who died in Texas.

The 5-year-old from a village in Mexico identified as the earliest swine flu case says, "I feel good."

The White House asked Congress for an additional $1.5 billion for pandemic flu preparations Tuesday as the head of the Republican Party defended its opposition to an earlier request.

Cases of swine flu were confirmed early today in Israel and New Zealand, the first definitive proof that the dangerous new virus has spread to the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, but international health officials said there was little point in imposing border or travel restrictions or otherwise trying to contain the virus.

The current vaccine-making processes are multi-step recipes that begin in the molecular biology labs of international and national ...

The UK advises against all but essential travel to Mexico, where swine flu is believed to have killed almost 150 people.

Health officials around the world worked to contain what appears to be a spreading swine flu outbreak early Monday, while one out of every five residents of Mexico's most populous city wore masks to protect themselves against the virus.