Flu Fears Drive Haiti To Reject Aid

Haiti turned away a Mexican ship carrying desperately needed food aid because of swine flu fears.

Mexican Ambassador Zadalinda Gonzalez y Reynero says Haitian officials asked April 29 for the ship to come to the impoverished Caribbean nation "on another occasion."

The Mexican navy ship was to arrive May 2 in Port-au-Prince with 77 tons of rice, fertilizer and emergency food kits. The ambassador said Wednesday that the cargo and 64-member crew had been screened and showed no signs of infection. But it never left Mexican waters.

Haitian officials had no immediate comment.

Haiti's decision is another example of the international community's wariness of Mexico, the hardest-hit country in the H1N1 outbreak.

On Wednesday, dozens of Mexican nationals who were quarantined at hospitals and hotels in China despite showing no symptoms of swine flu arrived home early Wednesday on a government-chartered jet.

Mexico had criticized the quarantine as unfair and discriminatory. Of the 71 Mexicans held at hospitals and hotels in China, Mexican diplomats say none had swine flu symptoms.

China has defended its measures to block the swine flu virus from entering the world's most populous nation.

A number of European countries also restricted travel to Mexico as the outbreak spread last week.

Meanwhile, Mexican health officials said that testing of backlogged cases has increased the confirmed H1N1 (swine) flu death toll from 31 to 42. That includes three new deaths in the past two days.

Officials also have confirmed 1,070 other cases of infection.

Health Secretary Jose Cordova says most of the new confirmations came from older cases.

The news came Wednesday as Mexico ended a five-day, government-ordered shutdown designed to contain the virus.