Flu caught Energy advance man, family

by Mark Silva

When President Barack Obama traveled to Mexico earlier this month, he was visiting a city that was about to become the world capital of a swine flu outbreak.

When the director of the state museum in Mexico City who gave Obama a tour in mid-April died a week later, and cases of swine flu started emerging, people started asking questions - but the Mexican embassy concluded the director had died of unrelated causes, suffering from an existing condition. And Obama felt fine.

But a member of the American delegation to Mexico did catch a flu, did come home and expose three members of his family and has recovered, the White House said today.

The sufferer was the lead advance man for the security deal of U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. He arrived in Mexico City on April 13, started to feel ill the 16th, developed a fever on the 17th and returned to the U.S. on the 18th, the White House said today. Obama arrived there on the 16th.

Three members of the advance man's family have tested positive for Influenza Type A, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, and they are being further tested to see if it is the subset of Type A that authorities are calling H1N1 - aka swine flu.

"Individual families suffered mild symptoms,'' Gibbs said, but they were not hospitalized.

The worker visited his brother's home, and his nephew got ill. The worker's wife and son also developed symptoms. The worker told his doctor of his itinerary on Saturday.

"The president has not experienced any symptoms,'' said Gibbs, noting that "we are almost twice the length removed from a symptomatic window'' for infection and the Energy advance man had never flown aboard Air Force One on the trip.

"All four individuals experienced only mild symptoms and all four have recovered,'' Gibbs said, and the advance man is back at work - getting ready, no doubt, for his next trip.