US reaction to swine flu more muted than elsewhere

U.S. airports and border agents waved people through with little or no additional screening for Mexico's deadly swine flu _ a far more muted reaction than the extreme caution elsewhere around the world.

The number of confirmed U.S. cases rose to 50, most of them mild and none fatal. The government said it was shipping millions of doses of flu-fighting medicine from a federal stockpile to states along the Mexican border or where the virus has been detected.

But the American reaction to swine flu, which has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and on Monday led the World Health Organization to raise its alert level, was mostly limited to steps that hospitals, …