Pandemic | featured news

The World Health Organization said Tuesday a spike in swine flu cases in Australia may push it to finally announce the first flu pandemic in 41 years. It also expressed concern about an unusual rise in severe illness from the disease in Canada.

The mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, has been quarantined in China after possible exposure to the H1N1 virus, his office said Sunday.

The World Health Organization said Tuesday it is "getting closer" to declaring a global outbreak of the swine flu virus as the infection appears to be taking hold outside of North America.

The announcement means that despite the global spread of swine flu, with cases confirmed in 42 counties, it will probably never be declared a full-fledged pandemic.

The increasing number of swine flu cases in Japan raises the likelihood that the World Health Organization will soon have to raise its pandemic alert level to 6.

Swine flu sickened 21 more students in Japan and Turkey reported its first case of the potentially pandemic virus that's spread to about 40 countries.

India and Turkey record their first cases of swine flu, giving further evidence that the virus is spreading.

An assistant principal was in critical condition with New York’s most serious case of the swine flu virus so far.

The swine flu panic has faded, but the damage could be lasting to Mexico's tourism industry. Millions of dollars of have been lost from the country's third largest source of revenue. The Caribbean resort of Cancun has been particularly hard hit, with 22 hotels closed and about 10,000 workers furloughed.

A woman in Arizona suffering from a lung condition has apparently become the fourth person in the nation to die with swine flu.