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WASHINGTON: The number of swine flu cases in the United States rose on Thursday to 118 across 15 states, with New Jersey and Colorado the latest to battle the virus.
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine announced five people had been confirmed as infected with the H1N1 virus, but said none were in serious condition.
"All five individuals had a mild case of H1N1 Influenza," Corzine's office said in a statement. "None were hospitalised and all are recovering at home."
Four of the individuals had recently travelled to Mexico, where the global outbreak started. The fifth had been in California, which borders Mexico.
Colorado health authorities said the virus had been confirmed in a woman who had recently returned from Mexico and in a baggage handler at Denver International Airport.
Only the baggage handler was hospitalised, but he was due to be released on Thursday, officials said.
The infection rate is slowly rising across the United States and other countries nearly a week after the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the alert about the flu outbreak in Mexico.
So far only one person - a Mexican boy visiting relatives in Texas - has died in the United States. He remains the only fatality outside Mexico, where at least 12 people have died.
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which collates national data with a slight time-lag, has so far confirmed 109 cases in 11 states.
The biggest US outbreak has been in New York state with 50 cases, 49 of them just in New York City, most of them at a single school. Officials said on Thursday they were probing 16 probable cases, but said the situation was stabilised.
"Most cases continue to be mild," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "We're better off than we were yesterday."
Other states among the latest to report swine flu include Nebraska, where officials confirmed that one person had been infected and two other probable cases were being investigated.
Minnesota authorities said a resident with ties to a middle school which had been closed out of precaution has fallen ill with the virus.
Fifteen states have reported confirmed cases of swine flu: Arizona (1), California (14), Colorado (2), Indiana (1), Kansas (2), Massachusetts (2), Michigan (1), Minnesota (1), Nebraska (1), Nevada (1), New Jersey (5), New York (50), Ohio (1), South Carolina (10) and Texas (26). - AFP/de
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