MEDICINE

Mexican officials voiced hope on Friday they were getting a handle on an outbreak of a new flu strain as doctors sought to understand how dangerous it is, how far it might spread and where it came from.

Asia's first case of swine flu has been detected in Hong Kong, the territory's Chief Executive, Donald Tsang told reporters after visiting the Infectious Disease Centre of the Princess Margaret Hospital Thursday afternoon.

Continental Airlines Inc said on Friday that it had made temporary cuts to its seat capacity to Mexico, citing lower demand as a new strain of flu spreads.

Staying inside to avoid the flu? Or perhaps you are not convinced yet that a pandemic would be scary. Either way, the U.S. National Archives has a solution.

Mexico started a five-day shutdown of most offices and businesses on Friday to try to halt the spread of a deadly flu strain, and officials said they were encouraged by signs the number of new cases was dropping.

Electronic health records need a nudge from the government if the technology is to become widespread, the nation's new health information technology czar said on Thursday.

Mexico's state owned oil and gas company Pemex maintains operations on its production, distribution, storage, offshore terminals and export facilities despite a federal government call to suspend all non essential economic activities to avoid the propagation of the swine flu virus.

The World Bank announced Thursday that a Bank staff member in Washington DC was preliminarily diagnosed with the Swine Flu on April 29.

A deadly swine flu outbreak could push Mexico into a recession so deep it might rival the mid-1990s Tequila Crisis financial meltdown, as the economy shuts down and tourists stay away.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised its global alert system to 5 on a 6-point scale, indicating a pandemic is imminent, as swine flu cases spread around the world.

Mexico began shutting down parts of its economy on Thursday to slow the spread of a new flu strain as officials urged increased worldwide precautions against an imminent pandemic.

Facebook becomes the latest social-networking site to monitor the spread of swine flu, tracking the occurrence of flu-related words and phrases in the United States and in Europe.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday he would tell his family to stay off planes or subways to avoid swine flu, prompting his office to go into damage control and the travel industry to complain.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon told his people to stay home from Friday for a five-day partial shutdown of the economy, after the World Health Organization said a swine flu pandemic was imminent.

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that a global flu pandemic was imminent, raising its threat level as the swine flu virus spread and killed the first person outside of Mexico, a toddler in Texas.

Using a new tracking tool, search engine giant Google said on Wednesday it saw a spike in searches for information about flu among people in Mexico last week even before news of the outbreak became widely known.

Actress Kirstie Alley will be making an appearance on Oprah this Thursday to talk about her recent weight gain.

A Mexican toddler in Texas has died of the new swine flu virus, the first confirmed death outside Mexico, as the World Health Organization said the outbreak showed clear signs of spreading around the world.

U.S. drugmaker Wyeth reported higher-than-expected first-quarter earnings, boosted by cost-cutting, but revenue fell short of forecasts as the stronger dollar hurt overseas sales.

This first swine flu death in the U.S. has been confirmed in Texas with the death of a 23 month old toddler, this is first death of its kind to take place outside of Mexico.

Germany confirmed its first three cases of swine flu on Wednesday, marking the arrival of the virus in the heart of continental Europe.