EU issues Swine Flu travel warning: do not travel to Mexico, US unless essential

EU health officials have issued a Swine Flu travel warning, urging Europeans to postpone all nonessential travel to the United States and Mexico.

The call comes after Spain became the first European country with a confirmed case of Swine Flu, and around 20 others suspected of carrying the virus in Spain have been isolated. Notably a travel warning like this is usually only applied to third world countries, or for countries where there is a civil disturbance.

Naturally Government representatives in the United States disagreed with the warning. Richard Besser, acting director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said any such restriction was unwarranted because of the limited number and seriousness of cases in the country. However Besser did agree with the travel warning applying to Mexico.

The warning against travel to North America will further hit airlines who were already struggling with the effects of the recession. Airline and travel stocks took a big beating today, with the AMEX Airline Index (AMEX:XAL.X), which tracks 13 airline stocks, falling 10.62%.