Health Experts Gauge Flu Outbreak

Commuters, wearing protective face masks to prevent infection from swine flu, ride in the subway in Mexico City, Saturday, May 2, 2009. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

(AP)

Health experts walked a tightrope Sunday, unsure whether the swine flu epidemic was starting to fizzle out or was just in a lull before another surge. Germany reported two more confirmed cases, and Hong Kong kept 350 people under quarantine in a downtown hotel as a precaution.

Mexico reported three new deaths from the swine flu epidemic late Saturday from a virus that has killed 19 in people in Mexico, one in the U.S. and is spreading across Asia and Europe.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said there were 11 cases of people suspected to have died in Mexico from the virus in the last 24 hours. The alarming news came after the epidemic's toll in Mexico appeared to have been leveling off.

The global caseload was nearing 800 and growing — the vast majority in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Costa Rica reported its first confirmed swine flu case — the first in Latin America outside Mexico. The only other fatality involved a Mexican toddler who died while in Texas.

Swine flu cases have been confirmed in 18 countries so far — including in Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region — and experts believe the actual spread is much wider.

German health authorities said Sunday that the countryf now had eight confirmed cases. A married couple from the state of Brandenburg were just diagnosed — and they had been on the same flight as a man from Hamburg who had swine flu after visiting Mexico.

Italy reported its second case of swine flu Sunday, a 25-year-old man who recently returned from Mexico. The Health Ministry said the man is fine and was being kept in isolation at home.

Asia had no new cases Sunday, but Hong Kong and South Korea each reported one case on Saturday — the first on the continent — setting off alarms in a region with memories of severe acute respiratory syndrome and bird flu outbreaks. Both cases were in people who had recently arrived from Mexico.