More swine flu cases have been reported across the world. The first death in Central America has occurred in Costa Rica (a 53-year-old man), while the death toll in the United States rose to three when a man in his thirties passed away after suffering from chronic heart problems. The U.S. has seen a sharp rise in the number of confirmed infections. The virus has now spread to 31 countries, with the first two cases confirmed in Norway (two students returning from Mexico). Thailand has announced a suspected case, while the total number of infections in Japan rose to four after it was confirmed that a student was infected during a school trip to Canada. Argentina declared it suspected there were 87 cases and said that blood samples were being examined. Health authorities in several countries said the number of deaths caused by the virus was still low compared with seasonal influenza, which cause for example the death of 4,000 people a year in Canada, 36,000 people in the United States and 2,500 in France. Meanwhile, Swiss sociologist Jean Ziegler said swine flu was being exploited in the world at the expense of the poor. He also said that the campaign launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) was raising people's fears and was not proportionate to the real problems. He said 45 people have died of swine flu over the past few weeks, while 100,000 people die from hunger, and a child under the age of 10 passes away every five seconds. Yet, he said we accepted this as if it were very normal. Ziegler dismissed as boasting the appearance of a WHO official in front of the media saying that the H1N1 virus was threatening two million people. He did not deny that the WHO had to monitor health worldwide, but he also said it could not blow things out of proportion and had to give each event the attention it deserved without frightening the people, as it knew more than them about the disease. In the meantime, the Australian actor Hugh Jackman was given the green light to attend the first fair of his latest movies at the end of this month despite the spread of flu in Mexico. Jackman said he intended to have fun and spend some time with his fans.
In Mexico City, life returned to normal and bars and nightclubs were packed with people after they were closed last week for fears of the flu. A resident of Mexico City, Alejandro, said: "We're just having some fun tonight. People fear possible infections, but I think it's all a psychological issue".
