By Catherine Bremer
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has lowered its estimated death toll from new influenza strain, giving heart to public health officials, but few were taking chances with an unpredictable virus that has sparked fears of a pandemic.
In Hong Kong, police quarantined a hotel with 200 guests and 100 staff after a Mexican guest was confirmed ill with the new A-H1N1 flu virus, widely known as swine flu.
And Britain, with 15 confirmed cases, launched "Catch it, Bin it, Kill it!" advertisements urging people to cover coughs and sneezes with tissues, throw them away and wash their hands to slow the spread of the virus.
"We don't know yet if this is more severe or less severe or of similar severity to seasonal flu. But we do know that this is new," said Dr Anne Schuchat, a senior official at the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which confirmed 160 cases in 21 states.
In Geneva, a World Health Organisation official said the virus had not spread in a sustained way outside North America, as would be required before the global pandemic alert level was increased from its current level of 5 on a six-stage scale.
"We have no evidence of sustained community spread outside of North America," Michael Ryan, WHO Director of Global Alert and Response, told a news briefing.
Mexican authorities cut their suspected death toll to up to 101 from as many as 176, as dozens of test samples came back negative. Fewer patients with severe flu symptoms were checking into hospitals, suggesting the infection rate was falling.
The World Health Organisation said on Saturday 15 countries have reported 615 infections.
Almost all infections outside Mexico have been mild. The only death in another country has been a Mexican toddler who was taken to the United States before he fell sick.
The U.S. CDC agreed the outbreak may not be as severe as it looked a few days ago, citing many mild cases that were not immediately noticed.
President Barack Obama said the United States was responding aggressively to the new flu strain.
He outlined steps being taken to address the virus, including school closures, and said antivirals were being distributed to states where they may be needed and new stockpiles had been ordered.
SEEKING ANSWERS
For Mexicans, spending a second weekend indoors, the data was cheering. But Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova cautioned it was too early to say Mexico had control of the flu.
"For now it's unpredictable," Cordova said late on Friday. "We need more days to see how it behaves and whether there is really a sustained decline."
Scientists are still trying to assess how the new virus compares to regular seasonal flu strains, which kill between 250,000 and 500,000 globally every year.
Although the outbreak remains tiny compared to other epidemics such as malaria, hepatitis and meningitis, the WHO hiked its pandemic alert level from three to five last week due to its rapid spread and the possibility it could hit hard in poor and disease-prone communities, including among people with HIV.
The virus is already causing havoc with a travel industry that flies hundreds of thousands of people to and from Mexico each week.
China suspended flights to Mexico after Hong Kong authorities on Friday confirmed a Mexican man who flew via the Chinese mainland was infected with the flu strain.
Police in surgical masks quarantined 200 guests and 100 staff inside a Hong Kong hotel where the Mexican, 25, had been staying, saying they would be confined for a week.
"They said everybody needed to go back to their rooms. I don't want to go to my room because I want to be out," an Australian man at the hotel told a TV reporter by telephone.
The Asian Development Bank said it was prepared to provide assistance to countries in the region to cope with the possible spread of flu.
Italy joined the list of European countries with confirmed cases of the virus.
Mexico has released a confusing batch of flu data in recent days but public hospitals have noted a steady drop in patients turning up with fevers, suggesting the infection rate may be declining as the nation dons face masks and hand gel.
"There are very few deaths worldwide," said Marcelo Musi, a salesman shopping for vegetables in Mexico City, where residents weary of masks, hand sanitizers and frightening headlines clutched at signs of an end to the crisis. "If there are no more cases, they say things will get better."
Cordova said of 159 files on suspected flu deaths, tests showed 58 died of other causes. He said 16 deaths are confirmed as caused by the H1N1 flu and 85 are being tested.
(Additional reporting by Louise Egan and Anahi Rama and Tan Ee Lyn in Hong Kong, Laura MacInnis in Geneva, Silvia Aloisi in Rome; writing by Andrew Quinn, editing by Alan Elsner)
