Mexico took even more drastic action to stamp out a swine flu epidemic, ordering a halt to nonessential business and federal government activities, as the World Health Organization ratcheted up its pandemic alert, warning that “all of humanity” is threatened.

The dire warning showed that world health officials are very worried about the potential for massive numbers of deaths worldwide from the mutated virus, even though the epidemic so far has claimed only a confirmed eight lives in Mexico and one in the United States. Roughly 170 deaths are suspected of having been caused by the virus in Mexico.

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Switzerland and the Netherlands on Thursday became the latest countries to report swine flu infections. In the Swiss case, a 19-year-old infected student was mistakenly released from a hospital before being hastily readmitted.

European Union health ministers planned emergency talks in Luxembourg to coordinate national efforts in preventing the spread of swine flu in Europe.

The Phase 5 alert, indicating a pandemic could be imminent as the virus spread further in Europe, prompted Mexico to announce the partial May 1-5 shutdown, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Cordova said late Wednesday.

U.S. Prepares for Long Haul

In Washington, President Barack Obama promised “great vigilance” in confronting the outbreak which has sickened nearly 100 people in 11 states. Fears over the flu have forced nearly 100 schools to close. A Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family died Monday night in Houston, becoming the first fatality in the U.S., and 39 Marines were confined to their base in California after one came down with the disease.

Vice President Joe Biden is arguing that there would be no practical benefit in shutting down the country’s border with Mexico.

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And the acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Richard Besser, agreed with the administration’s sentiment Thursday, saying there could be “negative consequences” to this option for containing the spreading swine flu virus.

Interviewed on CBS’s “The Early Show,” Biden called closing the border “a monumental undertaking” and said it would involve far more complications than simply shutting down schools or postponing public meetings.

Besser said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” there would be “no added value” of a border closing. He also said U.S. public officials would be wary of using thermal sensors to detect people who are sick, saying that wouldn’t be very effective in this case “where you are able to transmit the day before you have symptoms.”

The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity, has also spread to Canada, New Zealand, Britain, Germany, Spain, Israel and Austria.

“It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic,” WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in Geneva. “We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them.”

In a televised address, Mexican President Felipe Calderon praised “the heroic work” of doctors and nurses and asked his countrymen to literally stay in their homes between May 1 and May 5, saying “there is no safer place to protect yourself against catching swine flu, than in your house.”

“In recent days, Mexico has faced one of the most serious problems in recent years,” Calderon said Wednesday night. He brushed aside criticisms that his government’s response was slow, stressing several times that authorities had reacted “immediately.”

School in Mexico has already been canceled until May 6. During the shutdown, essential services like transport, supermarkets, trash collection and hospitals will remain open.

Calderon said authorities would use the partial shutdown to weigh whether to extend the emergency measures, or “if it is possible to phase out some” restrictions.

The outbreak appeared to already be stabilizing in Mexico, the epicenter. Confirmed swine flu cases doubled Wednesday to 99, but new deaths finally seemed to be leveling off after an aggressive public health campaign was launched when the epidemic was declared April 23. Although 17 new suspected deaths were reported, only one additional confirmed death was announced Wednesday night, for a total of eight countrywide. The virus is believed to have sickened as many as 2,955 people across the country, though hospital records suggest the outbreak may have peaked here last week.

Besser said there were confirmed cases in 10 states, including 51 in New York, 16 in Texas and 14 in California. The CDC counted scattered cases in Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio. State officials in Maine said laboratory tests had confirmed three cases in that state, not yet included in the CDC count.

Of particular concern is New York City’s outbreak, with 51 confirmed cases and tests under way on three probable ones outside the city. City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said Wednesday that all those with confirmed cases are recovering, but two more city schools closed because of suspected cases — in addition to a Queens Catholic school with a large outbreak.

‘Maintaining Great Vigilance’

The WHO said the global threat is nevertheless serious enough to ramp up efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus. It declared a Phase 5 outbreak — the second-highest on its threat scale — for the first time ever, indicating a pandemic could be imminent.

Obama said his administration has made sure that needed medical supplies are on hand and he praised the Bush administration for stockpiling 50 million doses of antiviral medications.

“The key now is to just make sure we are maintaining great vigilance, that everybody responds appropriately when cases do come up. And individual families start taking very sensible precautions that can make a huge difference,” he said.

Ecuador joined Cuba and Argentina in banning travel to or from Mexico and Peru banned flights from Mexico. The Panama Canal Authority ordered pilots and other employees who board ships passing through the waterway to use surgical masks and gloves. An average of 36 ships per day use the canal, most from the United States, China, Chile and Japan.

In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Cabinet ministers to discuss swine flu, and the health minister said France would ask the European Union to suspend flights to Mexico.

The U.S., the European Union and other countries have discouraged nonessential travel to Mexico. Some countries have urged their citizens to avoid the United States and Canada as well. Health officials said such bans would do little to stop the virus.

Where Did Virus Originate?

Medical detectives have not pinpointed where the outbreak began. Scientists believe that somewhere in the world, months or even a year ago, a pig virus jumped to a human and mutated, and has been spreading between humans ever since.

China has gone on a rhetorical offensive to squash any suggestion it’s the source of the swine flu after some Mexican officials were quoted in media reports in the past week saying the virus came from Asia and the governor of Mexico’s Veracruz state was quoted as saying the virus specifically came from China.

One of the deaths in Mexico directly attributed to swine flu was that of a Bangladeshi immigrant, said Mexico’s chief epidemiologist Miguel Angel Lezana.

Lezana said the unnamed Bangladeshi had lived in Mexico for six months and was recently visited by a brother who arrived from Bangladesh or Pakistan and was reportedly ill. The brother has left Mexico and his whereabouts are unknown, Lezana said. He suggested the brother could have brought the virus from Pakistan or Bangladesh.

By March 9, the first symptoms were showing up in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where pig farming is a key industry in mountain hamlets and where small clinics provide the only health care.

The earliest confirmed case was there: a 5-year-old boy who was one of hundreds of people in the town of La Gloria whose flu symptoms left them struggling to breathe.

Neighbors of the inspector, Maria Adela Gutierrez, said Wednesday that she fell ill after pairing up with a temporary worker from Veracruz who seemed to have a very bad cold. Other people from La Gloria kept going to jobs in Mexico City despite their illnesses, and could have infected people in the capital.

Swine flu has symptoms nearly identical to regular flu — fever, cough and sore throat — and spreads like regular flu, through tiny particles in the air, when people cough or sneeze. People with flu symptoms are advised to stay at home, wash their hands and cover their sneezes.

Emergency Response

There is no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies — and that decision hasn’t been made yet — it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.

“We’re working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful,” Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration’s swine flu work, told The Associated Press.

Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to avoid a full-fledged pandemic.

In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned closely by senators about whether the U.S. should close its border with Mexico, repeated the administration’s position that questioning of people at borders and ports of entry was sufficient for now and said closing borders “has not been merited by the facts.”

Swine Flu vs. Seasonal Influenza

“The illness is consistent with seasonal influenza and has generally the same symptoms of seasonal influenza,” Fukuda said. “Our information to date shows that the infection can range from very mild, requiring no hospitalization and recovering after a few days, to fatal, which is also in keeping with seasonal influenza.”

Fukuda said there is no evidence that the virus is spreading from pigs or that it is unsafe to eat pork.

Authorities sought to keep the crisis in context: Flu deaths are common around the world. In the U.S. alone, the CDC says about 36,000 people a year die of flu-related causes.

Children, especially those younger than age 5, are particularly vulnerable to flu and its complications, and every year children die from seasonal flu.

According to the CDC, more than 20,000 children younger than age 5 are hospitalized every year because of seasonal flu. In the 2007-08 flu season, the CDC received reports that 86 children nationwide died from flu complications.

As of April 11, CDC had received reports of 53 seasonal flu-related deaths in children during the current seasonal flu season.

Still, the CDC calls the new strain a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which people may have limited natural immunity.

Hence the need for a vaccine. Using samples of the flu taken from people who fell ill in Mexico and the U.S., scientists are engineering a strain that could trigger the immune system without causing illness. The hope is to get that ingredient — called a “reference strain” in vaccine jargon — to manufacturers around the second week of May, so they can begin their own laborious production work, said CDC’s Dr. Ruben Donis, who is leading that effort.

The first doses of a swine-flu vaccine could be available about 15 weeks after the World Health Organization decides what kind of vaccine it wants companies to produce, Sanofi-Aventis SA’s chief executive said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.