The first case of swine flu was confirmed in Asia as health experts said the world appeared better prepared to fight an epidemic now than a few years ago and vowed a vaccine was only months away.

Confirmation by Hong Kong authorities that a traveler who arrived from Mexico, via Shanghai, had tested positive for A(H1N1) flu virus saw an entire hotel quarantined.

And the news sent shivers through the territory that was at the center of the 2003 SARS crisis, with Beijing responding swiftly by suspending flights from Mexico to Shanghai, China's state media reported Saturday.

Denmark and France joined the list of countries reporting their first cases.

But in a sign that authorities may be containing the spread of the disease, Mexico, which has been at the epicenter of the outbreak, said the new multi-strain virus appeared not to be as aggressive as had first been feared.

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the country's confirmed toll now stood at 15 dead and 328 people infected, as lab tests came through from hundreds of backlogged cases.

"Fortunately the virus is not so aggressive -- it's not a case of avian flu, which had a mortality rate of nearly 70 percent," Cordova told reporters.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang was taking no chances however in this densely-populated, sub-tropical territory, saying he would "raise the alert level from serious to emergency."

And Xinhua news agency reported Beijing was shutting down flights between Mexico and Shanghai.

"With a case of influenza A (H1N1) confirmed in a flight from Mexico, the Chinese government has decided to suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai in east China," the Xinhua agency reported the Foreign Ministry as saying.

The report said China had notified the Mexican government and airline companies about the decision, adding Beijing may send a charter plane to Mexico to collect "Chinese passengers who had planned to fly to Shanghai from the city of Mexico on May 3."

The World Health Organisation has warned an official pandemic is now imminent, raising its alert level to five out of six, but a senior official at the UN agency said a vaccine was in the pipeline.

"We have no doubt that making a successful vaccine is possible in a relatively short period of time," Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO Director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research said, adding it may take four to six months.

With 143 infections confirmed in the United States across 20 states, US officials also said the outbreak did not appear to be anywhere near as dangerous as the 1918 flu epidemic that swept the globe, killing an estimated 50 million people.

"We do not see the markers for virulence that were seen in the 1918 virus," Nancy Cox, the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) influenza division, told reporters.

The head of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) added her voice to global reassurances saying Latin America was better prepared to handle today's outbreak than five years ago when avian flu struck.

"Every country is better prepared than five years ago when we had our first avian flu alert," said PAHO director Mirta Roses, speaking at a special Organisation of American States (OAS) meeting in Washington.

Nations in the region "have updated their plans against the influenza since 2004, with tested plans, drills, and increased training of personnel," Roses said.

Spain meanwhile reported that its number of suspected swine flu cases appeared to have stabilised as the figures dropped to 108 from 116. There are so far 13 confirmed cases in the country.

"We interpret from this figure a certain stabilisation, without letting our guard down, but there is a certain stabilisation," said Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez.

Among the latest cases revealed was that of a nurse in Germany who had treated a patient with the disease, but had not been to Mexico.

Scottish authorities also confirmed the first case of swine flu in Britain involving someone who had not recently traveled to Mexico.

And in France Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said the country's first two cases of swine flu had been confirmed.

Most cases outside Mexico have involved only mild symptoms of the illness that can be easily treated with existing flu medicines, and some experts have suggested the virus may have weakened as it was carried outside the country.

Source: The Daily Star