Countries slow to admit flu epidemic

CANCÚN, Mexico — As swine flu runs rampant in the Southern Hemisphere winter, world-health experts are concerned that some hard-hit countries have been reluctant to protect public health.

Only Friday did Argentina's new health minister, Juan Manzur, raise the country's official death toll to 44. He estimated 320,000 people have been stricken with influenza, including about 100,000 with swine flu, a significant increase in what the government acknowledged previously.

Britain, for its part, had refused to do widespread testing for swine flu, slowing the World Health Organization's efforts to declare that the viral spread had become pandemic. Britain's Health Minister Andy Burnham acknowledged Thursday that Britain needs to revamp its response and could see up to 100,000 new swine-flu cases a day by the end of August.

The Argentine government was reluctant to employ unpopular measures leading up to last Sunday's midterm elections. Now that they're over, it ramped up its response, but refused to declare a national public-health emergency, despite ranking third in the world for swine-flu deaths behind the United States and Mexico.

Mexico has confirmed 10,687 cases, including 119 deaths. Confirmed U.S. cases have reached nearly 34,000, with 170 deaths, federal officials said Thursday.