Beijing Olympics: Mexico relieved but world swine flu fears persist

Global health chiefs warned against complacency over swine flu, saying one in three people may be infected worldwide if there is a pandemic, as life in Mexico returned to normal.

"It is critical for countries to maintain their alertness and monitoring so this evolution can be followed as closely as possible," said Keiji Fukuda, acting director-general of the UN's World Health Organization WHO.

"We don't believe we have fully got a handle on the severity of the phenomenon."

Asian nations will increase stockpiles of medicines to fight swine flu and look at ways of sharing supplies in case of a pandemic, according to a statement drafted for ministers meeting on Friday.

Health ministers from China, Japan, South Korea and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian nations ASEAN meeting in Bangkok also agreed to look at screening people leaving affected areas, it said.

The statement said they would "assess the potential need and increase stockpiling of essential medicines, medical supplies and personal protective equipment to the level necessary for effective responses," it said.

This was needed because 90 percent of the global vaccine production is concentrated in Europe and the United States, meaning that "access to effective pandemic vaccines is a major problem in this region", it said.

The Asian countries, home to around a third of the world's population of six billion people, said they would also "establish... a system for sharing essential supplies among national stockpiles in case of emergency need."

The latest WHO figures show 2,371 cases of influenza AH1N1 infections have been reported by 24 countries -- before Brazil and Argentina confirmed their first cases later Thursday bringing the total to 26. Forty-six people have died; 44 of them in Mexico and two in the United States.

An Argentine man who returned from Mexico on April 25 was infected and has gone into voluntary isolation, while three of Brazil's four confirmed cases had traveled to Mexico and the other had gone to the United States, the countries' health ministers said.

An elderly woman suspected of having the A/H1N1 virus has died in the Canadian province of Alberta, although the cause of her death is unconfirmed, CBC television reported Friday.

Canadian public health officials were not immediately able to comment.

If confirmed, the death will be the first from the disease in Canada, which has seen 214 confirmed cases.

In a video conference in Bangkok, Fukuda warned the disease could become more virulent later in the year with the onset of the northern hemisphere's winter flu season.

"Complacency is the greatest danger," warned Fukuda. "It does appear to be a period where the virus may be seeding itself in various parts of the world."

He later said that a third of the population could be infected, based on past pandemics. But "we live in a different world," Fukuda stressed. Up to 50 million people died of a "Spanish flu" pandemic in 1918.

Mexico's schools, bars and cinemas reopened, while strict health measures transformed daily life.

China meanwhile lifted a seven-day quarantine on passengers who shared a flight with a Mexican man who was later diagnosed with swine flu. A total of 127 passengers were allowed to leave isolation after having shown no signs of carrying the virus.

Marai