WASHINGTON (AFP) — President Barack Obama has vowed to do "whatever it takes" to combat deadly swine flu but rejected calls to close the US border, calling that a pointless step with the virus already spreading on US soil.
"Everyone should rest assured that this government is prepared to do whatever it takes to control the impact of this virus," Obama said as he marked his 100th day in office with a prime-time press conference Wednesday night.
The US president said he was consulting "on a day-to-day basis, in some cases an hour-to-hour basis" with top health aides and he was following their advice that closing the US border would be ineffective.
"From their perspective, it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States," he said, as US lawmakers warned public pressure was growing to take that drastic step.
Obama acknowledged the World Health Organization's decision to raise its six-step pandemic alert rating to level five, or "imminent," but insisted that the disease's spread "is a cause for deep concern, but not panic."
The pandemic alert was issued as "a wake-up call to the global community so that other countries can prepare for the event that the outbreak comes to their borders. It doesn't really change anything in terms of our approach," US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief Richard Besser told CNN television Thursday.
He confirmed authorities were investigating the origins of the outbreak.
"Where it originated is important because that can tell us about future prevention," Besser said.
"What's really important in Mexico right now is understanding the spectrum of disease and why they're reporting more serious cases. If you can understand that, you can help our country and other countries to prevent that from occurring," he stressed.
Obama spoke after authorities announced that a Mexican toddler was the first person to die in the United States, which as of late Wednesday had at least 91 confirmed infections in 10 states.
Mexico has cut its suspected swine flu deaths from 159 to 84, with eight people confirmed dead and 99 confirmed cases of infection.
The 22-month-old Mexican boy died Monday in a Houston hospital three weeks after his family went to Texas to visit relatives. The CDC confirmed the new strain of H1N1 influenza was to blame.
Most of the US cases have been relatively mild, with only five sufferers requiring hospital treatment including the Mexican boy. Authorities stress that at least 35,000 people die annually in a regular US influenza season.
Nevertheless, Obama requested 1.5 billion dollars in emergency funding from Congress and urged schools with suspected cases of H1N1 to close and called on local officials to be vigilant in tracking infections.
"This is obviously a serious situation, serious enough to take the utmost precautions," the president said at the White House, adding that "more extensive steps" may be required.
About 100 schools in the United States have been closed in response to the outbreak, chiefly in hard-hit California, New York, Texas and South Carolina, the US Department of Education said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the Obama administration was "preparing for the worst."
"Our preparations are for a situation in which this does become a full-fledged pandemic," Napolitano said.
But Napolitano, again rejecting calls from US lawmakers to close the nation's borders, said "panicking" was unhelpful as she urged businesses, schools and families to take sensible precautions.
At the weekend, the Obama administration declared a public health emergency to free up federal stockpiles of anti-viral drugs and medical supplies for affected states.
Newly installed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, facing a baptism of fire on her first full day in office, said the Obama administration was staying on top of a "very dynamic situation."
The scientific focus was on containing the outbreak and developing a vaccine, Sebelius said, which one CDC official said could be ready as early as September if research and trials went well.
Infections were confirmed in four more US states -- Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan and Nevada. Most are at a school in New York City whose students recently visited Mexico.
US pig farmers were reeling as countries worldwide banned imports of North American pork, although the administration and lawmakers angrily insisted there was no risk of contracting swine flu from eating the meat.
In fact, the name "swine flu" is a misnomer because the virus is a hybrid also drawn from strains found in people and birds, the US government said as it officially adopted a new designation: "2009 H1N1 flu."
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