BOGOTA: Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has influenza A (H1N1) and officials have advised other South American leaders who met him at a summit of the infection, authorities said on Sunday.
The 57-year-old Uribe began feeling symptoms on Friday, the same day as a meeting of South American presidents in Bariloche, Argentina, and he was confirmed to have influenza A after returning home, Social Protection Minister Diego Palacio said.
Public health director Gilberto Alvarez said in a telephone interview that there was no need to put the president in isolation and that his condition would be monitored for three days to a week.
In New York, a top US health official said on Sunday H1N1 was estimated to have infected about 800,000 people in the spring, citing a study due to be released later this week.
Dr Thomas Frieden, who heads the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said surveys suggested the virus was widely spread around the city.
Frieden was New York City's health commissioner before taking the top CDC job in June.
"In New York City where we had a lot of H1N1 this last spring, the estimate is about 800,000 people, about 10 per cent of New York City residents, got infected with the flu," Frieden said in an interview with C-SPAN television aired on Sunday.
Frieden said there had been a twenty-fold variation in influenza infections around the country."We expect that some places will have more flu. Some places will have less."
The disease has infected well over one million people in the United States, and is now the CDC's No 1 priority.
Other research also shows that older children and young adults are by far the most likely to be infected with the new virus.
The World Health Organisation predicts a third of the world's population will eventually be infected. Detailed reports on outbreaks can help health officials prepare for epidemics in their communities.
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