US now leads world in cases

PANAMA. On Monday, as the Health Minister in Panama announced that three local school would close down temporarily, confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States climbed to more than 2,500, with the US now surpassing Mexico as the country most affected by the outbreak, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures.

Confirmed A H1N1 flu cases in Panama are on the rise, with 15 cases announced over the weekend.

Health Minister Rosario Turner said that bio-security conditions in public and private schools were to be checked to guarantee that further contagion risks in schools are minor.

Three local schools, including the private school Colegio Espiscopal San Cristobal, are temporarily closed down and will be remain so for three to seven days while the premises are disinfected.

Health authorities have also decided to set aside the former Emergency Room in the Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid hospital to attend to possible new cases. Until now, the only center treating suspicious cases was Hospital Santo Tomas , where patients are kept in isolatdion

In the US, the number of deaths linked to the illness rose to three over the weekend, with health officials in Washington state reporting Saturday that an man in his 30s had succumbed to the infection.

Officials said the man, who had an underlying heart condition, died last week with what appeared to be complications from the swine flu.

The A H1N1 count in the United States now stands at 2,532 confirmed cases in 44 states, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday, including 104 hospitalizations.

The vast majority of cases are mild.

Federal officials warned Friday that the swine flu outbreak in the United States is far from over.

"I want to address an issue that's been concerning me, that has to do with a sense of having dodged a bullet, a sense that this is over," Dr. Richard Besser, the CDC's acting director, said during a teleconference.

"While we have seen a lot of encouraging news in terms of severity, we continue to see hundreds and hundreds of new cases each day," he said.

The World Health Organization reported on Monday 4,694 confirmed cases of swine flu in 30 countries, with Canada,

Spain and the United Kingdom having the most cases outside of the US and Mexico.

Japan and Australia and mainland China reported their first confirmed cases over the weekend.