Mexican president: 1st A/H1N1 flu cases in U.S. instead of Mexico

Source: Xinhua | 05-07-2009 13:06

MEXICO CITY, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Wednesday that the first A/H1N1 flu case had been found in the U.S. state of California instead of Mexico.

"Let me tell you that technically, the first official record of the virus is swine flu A/H1N1 California 2009, reported in Imperial Valley in the state of California, in two children," Calderon said at a health center in Uruapan, a city in central Mexico.

Imperial Valley borders the Mexican state of Baja California. The A/H1N1 flu has so far killed 42 and infected 1,070 more in Mexico after the first case was detected in the town of Perote on Mexico's Atlantic coast in March.

Calderon thanked the Mexican people for applying measures to help check the virus.

"The number of people infected grew geometrically in 10 days from April 17 to 27. That is to say, had it continued the way it was going, we would have had thousands more people infected and dozens more deaths," he said.

Calderon said that the government had greatly expanded its capacity to check up to 700 samples a day and would continue boosting this capacity.

A good deed for the outbreak is that it had helped the nation strengthen its health care infrastructure and made it better poised against similar crisis.

"After this emergency, which I am sure we will overcome, Mexico will be ... stronger and more prepared" against other health threats, he said.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei