The White House has said that President Barack Obama's health was "never in danger" despite visiting Mexico during a swine flu outbreak and meeting a man there who died days later.
Authorities also took pains to tamp down concerns the Mexican government withheld information about health conditions in the country ahead of a visit by the world's most powerful leader.
Obama visited Mexico April 16-17, at least three days after the beginning of the outbreak of highly contagious swine flu that has now killed as many as 149 people in Mexico, infected a confirmed 44 in the United States and threatens to burst into a global pandemic.
On his first night in Mexico City Obama attended a function at the National Anthropology Museum and was welcomed by its director Felipe Solis, who died seven days later.
"The president's health was never in danger," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday.
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," Gibbs said.
{{/usCountry}}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," Gibbs said.
{{/usCountry}}The White House later issued a statement from Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for Mexico's embassy in Washington, saying Solis "died of complications of a pre-existing condition and not of swine flu.