Mexico City  - The bells of Mexico City's cathedral rang in prayer, and the figure of Our Father Jesus of Health was taken out onto the streets of the city's historic centre Sunday for the first time in 150 years to ask God for protection.

As in the times of smallpox, Roman Catholics joined in prayer against the ongoing flu epidemic, including cases of swine flu, that has left 149 people dead in the country in less than a month.

Brasilia - The Brazilian government complained Monday that Mexican authorities took too long to inform other countries of its swine flu outbreak. Brazil has so far not reported any cases of swine flu, the Health Ministry said.

"In such cases as these there cannot be such a delay in notification. Brazil has a habit of not hiding serious public health cases," said Agenor Alvares, general director of the public Agency for Health Surveillance (Anvisa).

Washington - The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was to issue an advisory against non-essential travel to Mexico - the epicentre of the global swine flu outbreak - acting director Richard Besser said Monday. "This is out of an abundance of caution," he said, adding that the Atlanta, Georgia-based CDC had confirmed 26 deaths in Mexico were a result of swine flu. "This is a small fraction of what they are seeing," Besser warned.

Mexico City/Geneva  - A spreading lethal virus that has claimed 68 lives in Mexico and infected at least 11 people in the United States prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to send out a global alarm Saturday.

WHO officials raised the possibility of an emerging pandemic even as countries in the region, including Nicaragua, Colombia and Brazil, tightened airport controls over people and goods arriving from Mexico.

Mexico City  - The death toll from a spreading wave of influenza in Mexico has climbed to 81, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said Saturday evening.

Twenty of the lethal infections have been definitively linked to the newly emerging strain of swine flu, he said. All told, 1,324 people have been admitted to hospital for examination.

In the United States, 11 non-lethal cases of a similar strain of influenza have been identified by the Centres for Disease Control, with tests pending on another 10 cases.