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Swine flu scare in Israel: Netanya man feared ill
By Haaretz Service and Reuters
Tags: Israel News, Swine Flu 

Authorities fear a case of swine flu may have made it to Israel after a 26-year-old Israeli who just returned from a trip to Mexico on Sunday checked himself into the hospital reporting flu-like symptoms.

Also Sunday, the Foreign Ministry urged Israeli nationals in Mexico and certain parts of the United States to exercise caution after the deadly swine flu strain killed up to 81 people in Mexico.

After consulting with the Health Ministry, the Foreign Ministry recommended that Israelis keep as clean as possible and avoid crowded areas. It also called on them to visit a doctor immediately if they suspect they have contracted the virus.
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The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.

Officials reported 20 U.S. cases of swine flu in five states so far, with the latest in Ohio and New York. Unlike in Mexico where the same strain appears to be killing dozens of people, cases in the United States have been mild - and U.S. health authorities cannot yet explain why.

A top official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Anne Schuchat, said Sunday that officials are preparing for a possible spread of the illness beyond the 20 cases confirmed in the United States and added, "I do fear that we will have deaths."

The deaths in Mexico and finding of infections in the U.S. have sparked a worldwide scare. On Sunday, a group of New Zealand school pupils and teachers just returned from Mexico were quarantined after showing flu-like symptoms, amid fears of the deadly swine flu strain spreading across the world.

Public health officials said some of a group of three teachers and 22 students from a secondary school in the country's biggest city, Auckland, had shown influenza-like symptoms a day after returning from three weeks in Mexico.

The deadly swine flu strain has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infections have also been found in the United States.

They were being confined to their homes while the results of tests were awaited.

"We are taking this very seriously and doing everything necessary to manage this situation," the NZ Press Association quoted Auckland public health clinical director Julia Peters as saying.

On Saturday, a Health Ministry consultant on pandemics Saturday downplayed the risk of swine flu being contracted in Israel. So far, no cases have been reported in the country, but health authorities are preparing to deal with the disease.

Commenting on the implications of the deaths and detection of many other non-fatal cases over the past few weeks in North and Central America, Dr. Ran Blitzer told Haaretz, "Israel is equipped to handle this disease." He added that the disease is for the most part not life-threatening.


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