U.S. swine flu death clears border crossing near Texas

By Robin Emmott

MATAMOROS, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's congested border into Brownsville, Texas, was uncannily quiet as news that a toddler who traveled through the crossing has died from swine flu in the United States kept people away.

The young Mexican boy became the first person to die on U.S. soil from the flu virus wracking Mexico after he was taken through the Matamoros-Brownsville crossing on April 4 to visit relatives, and later fell ill and died in a Houston hospital.

Only a few hundred people used the border crossing on Wednesday compared to several thousand on a normal day.

"People are only just realizing how contagious this is and the boy dying who came through here really brings that home," said Mexican-American student Jasmine Barrios, who lives in the United States and was crossing into Matamoros with her American boyfriend to visit her mother.

"This place is normally jammed with cars and now there's no one," she said.

The new flu strain has killed up to 176 people in Mexico and suspected infections are cropping up all over the world.

The World Health Organization raised its threat level on Wednesday and warned the world is at the brink of a pandemic.

Mexican federal highways and bridges official Juan Flores said more than 7,000 people cross the bridge over the Rio Grande every day by foot and car, mainly for work, shopping and to see family in the predominantly Hispanic area of south Texas. "Now there are just a few hundred," he said.