BUENOS AIRES – The spread of the AH1N1 flu virus in Argentina, where the illness is blamed for 18 deaths, is causing alarm among the public and problems at hospitals, which on Wednesday led the government to call on the citizenry for calm and advise people to take maximum prevention measures.

The spread of the virus, which has infected at least 1,294 people here according to a government report released on Tuesday, has forced the authorities to set up mobile health posts in Buenos Aires and the surrounding likenamed province.

On Tuesday, the government of Brazil recommended that people over age 60, children younger than 2 and people with a weakened immune system postpone trips to Argentina and Chile, the nations in the region most affected by the virus.

“It’s a health recommendation like the one we made at the proper time so that people avoid traveling to risk zones, like the United States, Canada and Mexico,” said Argentine Health Minister Graciela Ocaña on Wednesday, adding that the Brazilian measure “does not bother” Buenos Aires.

In remarks to Todo Noticias television, she issued a call to the public to remain calm and to strictly follow the recommended preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus.

All but one of the 18 flu fatalities were residents of the Argentine capital or the province of Buenos Aires, where health authorities suspended non-essential surgeries at public hospitals as a preventive measure.

In hospitals in Buenos Aires province on Wednesday there were 111 people receiving treatment for swine flu, of whom 75 were receiving assisted respiration, according to regional Health Minister Claudio Zin.

“Each year, 10 percent of the population contracts seasonal influenza, (and) if to that we add a similar percentage of people who get treatment for the A flu, it’s to be expected that there will exist an excess hospital demand,” he said.

Due to the lack of available personnel to handle the increase in doctor visits by people suffering flu-like symptoms, Zin said that health authorities were analyzing the possibility of rehiring retired physicians as well as mobilizing medical students approaching graduation. EFE