A member of the security advance team for President Obama's recent trip to Mexico is suspected of having contracted the swine flu and transmitted it to his family in Anne Arundel County, the White House said today. The man is on the staff of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who traveled with Obama to Mexico on April 16. He appears to have transmitted the virus to his wife, son and nephew, press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
Gibbs said the president has not been affected by the virus and said White House doctors say he does not need to be tested.
Maryland health officials announced test results yesterday showing that an Anne Arundel County woman and two children were among six "probable" victims of the flu whose preliminary test results have been sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be confirmed. Gibbs said the administration employee himself did not test positive for the virus, likely because he had already recovered completely by the time he underwent the tests. He has returned to work, Gibbs said. ... The World Bank said its employee came to work in downtown Washington on April 20, after being exposed to the virus on a business trip to Mexico but before the epidemic was publicly known. To limit the spread of the disease, the World Bank said, about 80 bank employees who may have come into contact with the infected man have been told to work from home until officials determine who should be tested.
The president was in Mexico for less than 24 hours en route to the three-day Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. A museum official who escorted Obama through an anthropological exhibit died of health problems unrelated to the flu a week later, and White House officials earlier this week went to great lengths to explain that "the president's health was never in any danger."
"He has not exhibited any symptoms; neither has anybody traveling with him," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.
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