BREAKING NEWS: First Swine Flu death in US

First swine flu death in U.S. reported

• Story Highlights
• NEW: Child in Texas confirmed as first U.S. fatality in outbreak
  
• Researchers identify first case of illness in Mexico
  
• 64 cases confirmed in United States, CDC says
  
• Thousands flood Mexican hospitals, scramble for masks
  

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A child in Texas has become the first fatality from swine flu in the United States, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

"I can confirm the very sad news out of Texas that a child has died of the H1N1 virus," the CDC's Dr. Richard Besser said.

As confirmed cases of swine flu have risen to at least 112, health officials think they may have found "patient zero" in the global outbreak -- in a small village in the mountains of Mexico.

La Gloria, tucked away off a dusty road flanked by pig farms, is where the earliest case of swine flu was confirmed.

Five-year-old Edgar Hernandez survived the earliest documented case of swine flu in an outbreak that has now spread across four continents.

His family lives in the 3,000-person village in the state of Veracruz, where a flu outbreak was reported on April 2. State officials arrived and took samples from dozens of people.

Lab tests confirmed that Edgar was the only patient in Veracruz to test positive for the swine flu virus; the others had contracted a common flu. Health officials had returned to Edgar's sample only after cases of the new flu strain were spotted around the country.

"In this case, there's a patient who turned out to be positive for the swine-flu virus, with the exception that at that time in no region of the world it had been established as an etiological, epidemic cause," said Mexico Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova.

Edgar has managed to bounce back from his symptoms and playfully credits ice cream for helping him feel better.

Mexican health officials suspect the swine flu outbreak has caused at least 159 deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses.

As of early Wednesday, the World Health Organization said, at least 112 cases had been confirmed worldwide.

The world body had not provided a breakdown for the additional cases that had been confirmed through lab tests.

The count adds seven cases to the previous total of 105 -- 64 in the United States; 26 in Mexico (including seven deaths); six in Canada; three in New Zealand; and two each in Israel, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The WHO list does not include 11 additional cases reported by New Zealand health officials, three by German officials or one confirmed by Costa Rica's health ministry.

The deadly outbreak in Mexico prompted authorities to order about 35,000 public venues in Mexico City to close or serve only take-out meals as health officials tried to contain the virus.

Officials in Mexico City also ordered the closing of bars, clubs, movie theaters, pool halls, theaters, gyms, sport centers and convention halls until May 6, said Juan Jose Garcia Ochoa, one of the city government's top officials.

Officials on Friday closed schools in the city and Monday extended that order nationwide until at least May 6.

"I'm pretty nervous of this whole virus thing," Berta Hernandez said as she touched up her eyeliner inside a packed and humid subway car in Mexico City. She did not dare lift her surgical mask to put on lip gloss.

"I'm nervous of the people who aren't wearing masks. Maybe they will suddenly sneeze or cough," she said.

Governments around the world scrambled to prevent further outbreak.

Some, like China and Russia, banned pork imports from the United States and Mexico, even though the World Health Organization said the disease "has not been shown to be transmissible to people through eating properly handled and prepared pork (pig meat) or other products derived from pigs." Several others, such as Japan and Indonesia, used thermographic devices to test the temperature of passengers arriving from Mexico.

The Philippines' health department urged people to avoid kissing and hugging in public. Argentina announced a five-day ban on flights from Mexico. Four cruise lines -- Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Princess -- canceled upcoming calls to Mexican ports.

President Obama said the outbreak is a cause for concern, not for alarm. The government urged travelers to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico. iReport.com: "Regular life" in Mexico with masks

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued emergency authorization for the use of two of the most common antiviral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza. The authorization allows the distribution of the drugs by a broader range of health-care workers and loosens age limits for their use.

In Mexico City, however, there is a shortage of such medication. It also became impossible to find protective surgical masks, which the government had handed out to one out of every five residents. Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta inside a Mexico City hospital »

Worried citizens continue to flood in night and day at hospitals, only to be turned around by armed guards.

"I was looking for a mask at my local pharmacy, but they sold out," supermarket worker Rafael Martinez said as he rode the subway. "I know it's a risk, but I can't find one."

Swine influenza, or flu, is a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs.

When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it harder to treat or fight, because people have no natural immunity.

Symptoms include fever, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Common seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people every year worldwide, far more than the current outbreak of swine flu. 

But there is no vaccine for the new disease, and little natural immunity, an expert said.

"I think the reason to be concerned is ... we had a vaccine for regular flu," said Dr. Carlos del Rio of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. "This is a totally new virus. ... You have a virus to which there's no pre-vaccination, there's no prior immunity. And, therefore, the mortality rate may be higher than other influenza viruses." 

Researchers do not know how the virus is jumping relatively easily from person to person, or why it's affecting what should be society's healthiest demographic.

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta in La Gloria, Mexico, contributed to this report.