By Catherine Bremer
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico began shutting down all non-essential work and services on Thursday to slow the spread of a new flu strain as new cases were found in the United States and officials urged increased worldwide precautions against an imminent pandemic.
New confirmed cases were also reported in Canada and Europe. Almost all infections outside of Mexico have been mild and only a handful of patients have required hospital treatment.
The World Health Organisation said it would remain for now at its current alert level -- one step below full pandemic -- and that it would no longer refer to the H1N1 virus as "swine flu" to appease beleaguered meat producers.
The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said it had sent materials for a quick diagnostic test to Mexico so scientists there can quickly screen people for the new flu. The CDC's Dr. Richard Besser said test kits were en route to health departments in all U.S. states to speed up surveillance.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the United States would spend $251 million (169.4 million pounds) to buy 13 million more courses of flu medicine. The United States began sending 400,000 doses of treatment to Mexico.
The U.S. government has stockpiled about 50 million courses of antiviral drugs and state stockpiles across the country include an additional 23 million courses.
"NO SAFER PLACE THAN HOME"
In Mexico, the worst-hit country with up to 176 deaths, President Felipe Calderon told government offices and private businesses not crucial to the economy to stop work beginning on Friday.
"There is no safer place than your own home to avoid being infected with the flu virus," Calderon said in his first televised address since the outbreak started.
In Mexico City, where the virus has already brought public life to a standstill, some were sceptical, while others vowed not to take part in the shutdown. Mexico's assembly-for-export factories known as maquiladoras and some of the country's mines said they would defy the shutdown call.
With its tourism industry savaged, shoppers staying home and exports to the United States in steep decline, Mexico could find itself in the longest, deepest recession it has seen in years, according to analysts.
Mexico's peso was hammered by flu fears on Thursday and its stock market slid. But most global markets were taking the flu news in stride as traders focussed on hopes that a deep U.S. recession may be nearing its end.
"The information that we have at this stage is it is a relatively minor (economic) event," International Monetary Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard said, although he warned that some countries and sectors could see fallout from the outbreak.
The WHO and flu experts say they do not yet know enough about the new strain to say how deadly it is, how far it might spread and how long any potential pandemic may last.
But the first detailed analysis, published in the journal Eurosurveillance, showed it was a mixture related to two known swine viruses, one itself a triple mixture of bird, human and swine viruses.
Flu epidemics generally last a few weeks or months in any single community, and can pass around the world in one or two waves over 18 months to two years before fading out.
FLU NOW IN 12 U.S. STATES
Virginia became the latest U.S. state to report confirmed infections of the swine flu, both involving people who had travelled to Mexico. That brought the U.S. total to 111 confirmed cases in 12 states and the only death recorded outside of Mexico -- a Mexican toddler visiting Texas.
About 300 schools closed across the country over possible infections.
The White House said on Thursday that a member of the advance team that went with President Barack Obama to Mexico had also come down with flu-like symptoms and passed them to his family, although all of them had recovered.
Normal seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people around the globe in an average year, including about 36,000 in the United States.
Worldwide, 11 countries have reported confirmed cases of the H1N1 strain, with the Netherlands the latest to join the list.
Switzerland also confirmed its first case on Thursday in a man returning from Mexico. Peru's health minister told Reuters that further tests had determined that a suspected case was not the new flu strain.
The WHO recommended all countries track any suspect cases and ensure medical workers dealing with them wear protective masks and gloves. But it stopped short of recommending travel restrictions, border closures or any limitation on the movement of people, goods or services.
Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director-general, told reporters there was no new evidence to prompt the agency to move to its top alert level, which would signal a global pandemic was under way.
Fukuda said Swiss drugmaker Roche was stepping up production of Tamiflu to deal with the infection.
(Additional reporting by Maggie Fox, Steve Holland, Lesley Wroughton, Julie Steenhuysen, Jason Lange, Alistair Bell, Helen Popper, Laura MacInnis, Stephanie Nebehay, Robin Emmot, Cynthia Johnson, Phil Stewart and Yoko Nishikawa; writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Peter Cooney)
