Created: 4/29/2009 6:51:47 AM 
Texas -- The United States has seen its first death from the swine flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A 23-month-old boy in Texas has died from the ailment, the Georgia-based agency reports. The flu death was confirmed Wednesday by Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during an interview with CNN. Besser gave no other details about the child.
Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Houston Health and Human Services Department, said Wednesday that the boy had traveled with family from Mexico to Brownsville in south Texas. She says the child became ill in Brownsville and was taken to a Houston hospital and died Monday night.
Texas' health officials say he arrived in Texas from Mexico on April 4 and developed flu symptoms four days later. The Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday the Mexico City boy had underlying health problems when he traveled to Brownsville Texas to visit relatives. He was admitted to a Houston hospital a few days after developing a fever and other flu symptoms and died on Monday night."We are really at early days here in the United States, and we may see a worsening of the disease," Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Congress on Tuesday.
She defended the federal government's decision not to close the border with Mexico, where the outbreak began, or screen travelers. "We don't think this virus can be contained, that we can stop it at the border," Schuchat said.
Seasonal flu alone kills 36,000 people a year, CDC acting Director Richard Besser said. As a result, "I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection."
President Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion to fight the illness' spread through stockpiling treatment medications, developing a vaccine, and other measures.
In Mexico, the epidemic is suspected to have killed 159 people, said Health Secretary Jose Cordova. Tuesday, Mexican officials closed restaurants, sports clubs and pools.
Israel confirmed its first case of swine flu. Cuba suspended direct flights to Mexico.
In New York, health officials closed P.S. 177, a public school for children with autism, and began testing students after nearly one-quarter of the student body became ill. The school is close to St. Francis Preparatory in Queens, where 44 cases have been confirmed after a student group visited Mexico. At least one student at P.S. 177 has siblings at St. Francis, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday. Students at a third city school are also being tested.
Two people hospitalized in New York have not been confirmed with the illness: a 2-year-old boy and woman who has been discharged, city health officials said.
Some schools also have been closed in Texas, California, South Carolina, Connecticut and Ohio.
The CDC says ample flu medicine is available and has released a quarter of its stockpile.
The U.S. had stockpiled 50 million treatment courses of Tamiflu, one of two antiviral drugs effective against swine flu, said Terry Hurley, a spokesman for Roche, the drug's maker. An additional 80 million courses can be produced if the federal government requests it, Hurley said. "We can ramp up quickly should demand increase." AP/USAToday
