Mexico City lifts flu alert

May 21, 2009, 18:24 GMT

Mexico City - Mexico City on Thursday lifted the alert it had issued in response to the bout of A(H1N1) influenza, which has left 78 people dead in Mexico in recent weeks.

Experts at the Scientific Oversight Committee recommended that the alert watch be changed from yellow to green, said Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. A health emergency had been decreed on April 23.

'That means that from today Mexico City goes 100 per cent back to normal,' Ebrard said.

There were 3,892 confirmed infections of the hitherto-unknown strain of flu in Mexico. The virus had a strong economic impact - particularly in the tourism sector - on a country which was already suffering from the effects of the global economic crisis.

School lessons were suspended for many days, mass events were cancelled, and Mexico City restaurants were banned from serving food on their premises.

Despite the easing of restrictions, however, Mexico City authorities said that the outbreak can only officially be considered to be under control after 15 days in which no new infections have been reported. That has not yet happened.

'They recommend that we of course keep up hygiene habits, which are in themselves good and which have allowed our city to deal with this contingency,' Ebrard said.

The scientific committee that advises the government in health- related matters is made up of representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the federal Health Ministry, among others.