Pat Dollard

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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that school closings may be necessary in an escalating global health emergency that claimed the first death in the United States and swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations. Obama said local educators across America should consider shuttering schools if conditions worsen.

Giving an update on a raging health menace that has dominated public officials’ time and caused universal anxiety, Obama said, “Every American should know that the federal government is prepared to do whatever is necessary to control this virus.”

He said he wanted to extend “my thoughts and prayers” to the family of a 23-month-old Mexican boy who died in Houston, the first confirmed U.S. fatality among more than five dozen infections. Health officials in Texas said the child had traveled with his family from Mexico to Brownsville in south Texas and was brought to Houston after becoming ill and died Monday night.

“This is obviously a serious situation” and “we are closely and continuously monitoring” it, Obama said.

The president said it is the recommendation of public health officials that authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu “should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible.”

Obama was underscoring advice that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided earlier to cities and states, and that some schools—most prominently in New York City—already have followed.

“If the situation becomes more serious and we have to take more extensive steps, then parents should also think about contingencies if schools in their areas do temporarily shut down, figuring out and planning what their child care situation would be,” Obama advised.

Obama said the federal government is “prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus.” He noted his request for $1.5 billion in emergency funding to ensure adequate supplies of vaccines.

Germany confirmed three cases Wednesday, and Britain and Spain had reported cases earlier. New Zealand’s total rose to 14.

Egypt’s government ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution, though no swine flu cases have been reported there. Egypt’s overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork, but farmers raise some 300,000-350,000 pigs for the Christian minority.

The disease is not spread by eating pork, and farmers were to be allowed to sell the meat from the slaughtered animals.

In the U.S., Obama said the government needs local agencies to help by looking out for any suspected flu cases.

And he advised people to take their own precautions—washing hands, staying home if they are sick, and keeping sick kids home.

The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies—and that decision hasn’t been made yet—it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.

“We’re working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful,” Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration’s swine flu work, told The Associated Press.

And the U.S. is shipping to states not only enough anti-flu medication for 11 million people, but also masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits.

Dr. Richard Besser, acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked Wednesday why the problem seems so much more severe in Mexico than in the United States.

He replied that U.S. officials “have teams on the ground, a tri-national team in Mexico, working with Canada and Mexico, to try and understand those differences, because they can be helpful as we plan and implement our control strategies.”

Cuba and Argentina banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people and sickening well over 2,000. In a bit of good news, Mexico’s health secretary, Jose Cordova, late Tuesday called the death toll there “more or less stable.”

Mexico City, one of the world’s largest cities, has taken drastic steps to curb the virus’ spread, starting with shutting down schools and on Tuesday expanding closures to gyms and swimming pools and even telling restaurants to limit service to takeout. People who venture out tend to wear masks in hopes of protection.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States included 45 in New York, 11 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Indiana and Ohio, but cities and states suspected more. In New York, the city’s health commissioner said “many hundreds” of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.