United States President Barack Obama has declared the A(H1N1) Mexican flu to be a “national emergency”.

The move enables health officials to waive certain requirements of health insurance programmes, allowing them to combat the spread of the disease more effectively. Mr Obama said that otherwise there could be insufficient means to deal with the pandemic in some areas. The measure is comparable to the state of emergency declared when hurricanes approach the US mainland.

More than a thousand deaths in the US have been linked to the Mexican flu and millions of US citizens are infected with the A(H1N1) virus. Last week the US health authorities said the flu was widespread in more than 40 states.