Scientists tout swine flu breakthrough

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This what I found about the swine flu,the vaccine could be founded.

Therefore,get the desease faster and you won't have to take the exams...:))))

Mexico relaxed strict controls aimed at containing swine flu Wednesday after a five-day lockdown, as officials heralded a scientific breakthrough towards finding a vaccine for the virus.

Offices and restaurants in Mexico -- the epicentre of the virus -- reopened despite officials conceding that the death toll had now risen from 29 to 42.

Meanwhile the number of cases in the US showed a sharp rise, Sweden became the latest country to confirm infection and China claimed the epidemic was worsening.

Canada offered hope for efforts to contain the outbreak, announcing that its scientists have carried out the first complete genetic sequencing of swine flu, referred to as the A(H1N1) virus by the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO).

Speaking after neighbouring United States confirmed a second fatality from the virus, Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told a press conference in Ottawa that knowledge of the virus had "taken a great step forward."

In Mexico, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said 42 people had been killed by the outbreak and that more than half the victims were between 20 and 29 years old -- an age group not normally badly affected by other flu bugs.

Cordova also said the number of confirmed infections in Mexico from the virus had risen from 913 to 1,070. The WHO says more than 1,500 people around the world have caught swine flu including some who have never been to Mexico.

Mexican authorities still pressed ahead with the reopening of offices and restaurants. High schools and universities are set to open on Thursday, to be followed by primary schools and kindergartens next Monday.

The emergence of the virus, a new strain that has combined human, swine and bird influenza, set off fears of a worldwide pandemic, even though the death toll has been relatively low and in line with any "normal" flu bug.

Countries have imposed a range of measures to prevent a dangerous and massively deadly global outbreak, hitting the tourism and travel industries and hurting Mexico's economy which was already weakened by the financial crisis.

Some of the measures have been denounced as an over-reaction and the WHO said it was asking countries that took "significantly different" measures to combat swine flu, such as restricting international travel, to justify their actions.

Meanwhile the number of confirmed US cases of swine flu surged by 60 percent Wednesday to 642 from 403, with infections reported in three more states and the death toll now at two.

New states reporting infections were Hawaii and Washington, which confirmed three cases each, and Oklahoma, with one case, according to a daily tally compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

With 41 states now reporting confirmed cases of the disease, the CDC website also upped the US death toll to add the first death of a US citizen from swine flu. The victim was a woman in her thirties "with chronic underlying health conditions" who died in a Texas hospital on Monday.

Although the worst initial fears about the deadliness of the outbreak have not been realized, Mexican officials say the economic cost has been steep and estimate it has cost the country 2.3 billion dollars (1.7 billion euros).

While only China -- the origin of the 2003 SARS epidemic -- and a handful of Latin American countries cut travel ties with Mexico, several airlines, tour companies and cruise lines suspended trips to the country.

"Chinese medical experts believe the global epidemic situation is still worsening and China has to give continued high attention," Vice Health Minister Zhang Mao was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

Relations between Mexico and China were badly strained when 70 Mexicans were placed under quarantine in China after one Mexican in Hong Kong was confirmed to have been infected. They were eventually flown home on Tuesday.

A group of Chinese nationals who had been stranded in Mexico returned home on Wednesday before being immediately quarantined.

All 119 passengers and crew on a government-chartered Boeing 777 were isolated after arriving at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport.