The number of confirmed swine flu cases remains officially at two in Israel, with four other suspected cases having been ruled out as of Wednesday night.
Tomer Vagim, a 25-year-old resident of Moshav Geulim, was admitted on Sunday to Laniado Hospital in Netanya after complaining of flu-like symptoms upon returning from a working visit to Mexico. Vagim, whose lab results came back positive for the swine flu strain, is in good condition, according to hospital officials. He was put in the Isolation Unit.
The second person infected with the virus is a 49-year-old Israeli man who returned Sunday from Mexico. He was hospitalized Monday in an isolation unit at the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.
Four other Israelis also come down with symptoms of the illness, including Vagim's five-year-old niece, who was admitted to the Isolation Unit at Laniado Hospital as well as a child who was a passenger from Flight 026, the plane on which the second swine-flu victim returned to Israel from Mexico via New York.
Laboratory test results that returned Wednesday night ruled out the presence of the swine flu strain (H1N1) in all four cases, according to Health Ministry officials.
Symptoms of the swine flu include respiratory distress, coughing or shortness of breath, combined with high fever and throat pain. A person may be considered at risk of carrying the disease if they were also present in Mexico, or any other area where the disease has been identified, at any time during a seven-day period prior to the appearance of their symptoms.
Swine Flu Hotline Opens Thursday
The Health Ministry will open a hotline to the public for questions related to swine flu on Thursday, operating from 7:00 a.m until 7:00 p.m.
Callers can dial *3090 from Bezeq land lines or 03-695-1541 from cell phones and all other phone lines. The Health Ministry will also simultaneously open an information call center for medical personnel, officials announced.
Late Wednesday, the World Health Organization announced it was raising its global alert level to Phase 5 out of 6, indicating that at least two countries in a common region have spread the virus through human to human contact. Officials said it was likely the organization would move to the highest pandemic alert, Phase 6, within the next few days.
Israeli Health Ministry Issues Travel Warning
The Ministry warned citizens Tuesday not to travel to Mexico, where the first outbreak of swine flu occurred. The same evening, just before Israel's Independence Day celebrations began, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Health and Defense Ministry officials to discuss the situation.
One of the issues raised by Prime Minister Netanyahu was the possibility of transferring the responsibility from the Health Ministry to the Defense Ministry for managing logistics in connection with outbreaks of the virus, but it was decided to leave the matter in the hands of the Health Ministry for now.
Jordan, meanwhile, issued instructions on Monday not to allow Israeli produce into the country because of the worldwide outbreak of swine flu, according to IDF Radio. Israeli officials said they would ask Jordan to resume trade after the Independence Day holiday.
Lebanese citizens are being told to end a national ethnic tradition in order to avoid spreading the illness which has not even arrived on its shores: Lebanon's Health Minister, Mohammad Khalifeh told journalists at a news conference Tuesday that his fellow Lebanese should stop greeting each other with a kiss on the cheek. "Let's stop the social kissing habit," said Khalifeh.
Lebanese were also advised not to travel to countries where swine flu has made its appearance, and parents were told to keep their children home from school when they are sick with the flu.
First US Death: Mexican Toddler
United States government officials reported the first death from swine flu on Wednesday -- a 23-month-old Mexican toddler whose parents had crossed the border in a desperate bid to save his life with medical treatment in Brownsville, Texas.
According to the Mexican Health Ministry, 152 people have died and 2,400 more were hospitalized due to the virus. The World Health Organization claimed, however, that only seven of the deaths in Mexico were directly related to the swine flu strain.
President Barack Obama called for school closures in locations with confirmed or suspected cases of the swine flu, saying "This is obviously a serious situation, serious enough to take the utmost precautions."
U.S. government officials said there were 91 confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. by Wednesday, with 11 states affected: California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts and New York. More than two-thirds of the confirmed cases, 51, were in New York -- most of them at a high school in Queens, New York, where an official said "many hundreds" of students were sick. However, of all those who have been struck with the illness throughout the United States, only five have been hospitalized; the vast majority of those who have contracted the virus have suffered mild to moderate flu symptoms, officials said.
Temporarily Shutting Down Mexico City
Government officials in Mexico City said measures taken to prevent public gatherings seem to be stabilizing the situation there.
Schools are closed, sending some 33 million students home to their families. Restaurants, swimming pools, gyms, restaurants, movie theaters and other places where the public might gather have all been shut down, as have museums, archaeological sites and other tourist venues.
In addition, the country itself has been put in quasi-quarantine by the international community.
France has asked that international airlines suspend all flights from European Union nations to Mexico. The request will be formally submitted at a meeting of EU health ministers scheduled for Thursday in Luxembourg.
Argentina and Cuba both have already banned flights to Mexico. The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) avoided declaring an outright travel ban, advising instead that Americans "avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico."
The World Health Organization (WHO), which earlier in the week raised its alert to Level 4, declaring a global pandemic, nonetheless said that closing international borders and banning travel would be ineffective in containing the spread of the virus.
At least 105 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in seven countries, according to the WHO, not including Mexico. Germany, Spain and England have reported confirmed cases of swine flu. Confirmed cases have also been reported in Canada and New Zealand.