President Barack Obama told Americans that the government is taking all precautions to ensure the swine flu that’s infected people in at least 19 states doesn’t turn into a more dangerous and deadly threat.

“This is a new strain of the influenza virus, and because we haven’t developed an immunity to it, it has more potential to cause us harm,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. “This creates the potential for a pandemic, which is why we are acting quickly and aggressively.”

Obama said while the strain of the flu, or H1N1, hasn’t been as virulent in the U.S. as in Mexico, where 16 deaths have been confirmed, Americans must prepare for the possibility of a resurgence. He’s asked lawmakers for $1.5 billion to battle an outbreak and develop a vaccine to prevent the virus from surfacing later this year during flu season.

“We will also continue investing in every resource necessary to treat this virus and prevent a wider outbreak,” he said. “The good news is that the current strain of H1N1 can be defeated by a course of antiviral treatment that we already have on hand.”

The virus has spread to 15 countries, bringing the world to the brink of the first influenza pandemic since 1968. Laboratory tests verified that at least 365 people in North America, Europe, Asia and New Zealand had the illness, with 10 deaths, according to World Health Organization’s Web site. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said evidence suggests that “transmission is widespread, and that less severe illness is common.”

Global Spread

The Geneva-based WHO urged countries to make final preparations against a disease that may sweep across the globe, preying on a world population that has no natural immunity to the new virus.

Obama said the U.S. started the week with 50 million courses of the treatment in a national stockpile and over the last few days, one-quarter of those were delivered to states. The government bought an extra 13 million treatments, he said.

Since the new flu strain was reported last week, Obama has encouraged public vigilance, while warning against panic. Today he repeated his call for people to make sure they keep their hands washed, cover their mouths when coughing and to stay home if ill.

Obama said yesterday that even if the steps being taken prove unnecessary, “it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Republican Address

Representative Lynn Jenkins of Kansas delivered the weekly Republican address today, continuing the party’s criticism of Obama’s economic policies. The targets include the $787 billion stimulus package approved mostly by Democratic lawmakers and a $3.55 trillion federal budget plan passed earlier this week.

The spending outline embraces Obama’s agenda, including his call to allow fast-track approval of an overhaul of the health- care system.

The budget “includes trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see,” said Jenkins, a former treasurer for the state of Kansas and certified public accountant.

“Trust me when I say Washington’s books are a mess,” the first term representative said.

Jenkins noted Obama’s first 100-days mark, which the president reached on April 29.

“While, like most of you, I like the president personally, I think the Democrats’ first 100 days running Washington can be summed up in three words: spending, taxing and borrowing,” she said. The plans passed so far “will add more to our nation’s public debt than all previous presidents combined in 200 plus years.”

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The White House has insisted that President Barack Obama's health was "never in danger" despite visiting Mexico during the swine flu outbreak and meeting a man who died a day later.
>Barack Obama (L) waves as he is welcomed by Felipe Calderon, Mexico's president, during a ceremony at Los Pinos, the presidential residence, in Mexico City

The president's spokesman was barraged with media questions following reports that Felipe Solis, an archaeologist who showed Mr Obama around Mexico City's anthropology museum earlier this month, died the next day of "flu-like symptoms".

Mr Obama visited Mexico on April 16 and 17, at least four days after the beginning of the outbreak of highly contagious swine flu.

"The president's health was never in danger," said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary who said he had talked to Mr Obama's doctors.

Neither "the president nor anybody that I know of traveling with him in either governmental or press capacity has shown any symptoms that would denote cause for any concern," he said.

The White House later issued a statement from Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for Mexico's embassy in Washington, saying Mr Solis "died of complications of a pre-existing condition and not of swine flu."

Mr Obama has reassured Americans that the swine flu outbreak is " not a cause for alarm" despite the small but rising number of cases in the United States.

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