Barack Obama 'met man who died of suspected flu' in Mexico
The White House has insisted that President Barack Obama's health was "never in danger" despite visiting Mexico during the swine flu outbreak and meeting a man who died a day later.
By Tom Leonard in New York
Published: 1:40AM BST 28 Apr 2009
Barack Obama (L) waves as he is welcomed by Felipe Calderon, Mexico's president, during a ceremony at Los Pinos, the presidential residence, in Mexico City Photo: BLOOMBERG
The president's spokesman was barraged with media questions following reports that Felipe Solis, an archaeologist who showed Mr Obama around Mexico City's anthropology museum earlier this month, died the next day of "flu-like symptoms".
Mr Obama visited Mexico on April 16 and 17, at least four days after the beginning of the outbreak of highly contagious swine flu.
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Swine flu claims second British victim"The president's health was never in danger," said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary who said he had talked to Mr Obama's doctors.
Neither "the president nor anybody that I know of traveling with him in either governmental or press capacity has shown any symptoms that would denote cause for any concern," he said.
The White House later issued a statement from Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for Mexico's embassy in Washington, saying Mr Solis "died of complications of a pre-existing condition and not of swine flu."
Mr Obama has reassured Americans that the swine flu outbreak is " not a cause for alarm" despite the small but rising number of cases in the United States.
