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Mass. Senate approves pandemic flu prep bill By Associated Press | Tuesday, April 28, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics The Massachusetts Senate has unanimously passed a pandemic flu preparation bill that has languished in the Legislature before the recent swine flu outbreak. The 36-0 vote today sends the measure to the House. Both branches have taken it up in past years, but have not been able to agree on the details. The new Senate version would allow the public health commissioner — in a public health emergency — to close or evacuate buildings, enter private property for investigations, and...

"MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The 39-year-old woman who was the first to die in Mexico's swine flu epidemic spent the last eight days of her life going from clinic to clinic to find out what was wrong with her but doctors were baffled. The woman, from the southern state of Oaxaca, died shortly after being admitted to hospital as an emergency case. Experts only identified the virus that killed her 10 days later. The swine flu outbreak has killed as many as 159 people in Mexico, and forced the World Health Organization on Wednesday to warn that a global flu...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has sent a memo to some health care providers noting procedures to be followed if the swine flu outbreak eventually makes quarantines necessary. DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: "The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines."

South Korean officials have found a suspected case of swine flu in a woman who recently returned from Mexico. Health authorities are carrying out clinical tests on the woman, officials and news reports said. Mexico, with 149 deaths suspected to be due to the virus, is the epicentre. The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised its alert level. In Asia, several countries have been conducting tests on travellers to check for symptoms of swine flu. In Australia, 19 people are being tested, with several hundred more who might have had contact with the disease being sought. New Zealand has identified...

Mexico canceled school nationwide Monday and warned the death toll from a swine flu epidemic believed to have killed 149 people would keep rising before it can be contained. Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said 20 of the deaths have been confirmed to be from swine flu and the government was awaiting results on the others. "We are the most critical moment of the epidemic. The number of cases will keep rising so we have to reinforce preventive measures," Cordova said at a news conference that was briefly shaken by an earthquake centered in southern Mexico.