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 on 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.
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."
The clarification came following reports that Felipe Solis, Director of Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology, who had come in contact with Obama during his visit to the country, died the day after due to swine flu, which is spreading fast in the American continent.
"The doctors have informed me that the President's health was never in any danger; that he has not exhibited any symptoms; neither has anybody traveling with him; neither has any of the press that traveled with him that I'm aware of exhibited any symptoms that would cause some reason for concern," he said.
Both the White House the Government of Mexico later clarified that the flue was not the cause of death of Solis and he dies a week later due to cardiac arrest.
