Deadly Flu From Swine Hits People in Mexico, California, Texas

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By Tom Randall

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- The same new strain of deadly swine flu was confirmed in Mexico City, California and Texas, raising the threat of pandemic after it infected hundreds of people.

At least 59 died and 854 were sickened with flu-like symptoms in the Mexico City region in the past month, according to the World Health Organization. Of 14 samples tested from Mexico, half matched the swine flu reported in eight people in California and Texas, the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said today.

U.S. hospitals are being asked to collect samples from patients with flu-like symptoms, said William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. Teams of disease sleuths have been sent to California and Texas to trace how the malady has spread, and the U.S. offered to send scientists to Mexico, the CDC said. President Barack Obama is being briefed, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, told reporters today.

“Our concern has grown since yesterday in light of what we’ve learned since then,” said Richard Besser, the acting director of the CDC, said during a conference call today with reporters. “This is something we’re worried about and taking very seriously. We are moving quickly, being very aggressive in our approach.”