New flu strain confirmed in Turkey and India

* Schools closed after cases found in Kobe, Japan

* Mexico raises death toll

* No deal yet on virus sharing (Updates with Mexico, WHO)

By Ayla Jean Yackley

ISTANBUL, May 16 (Reuters) - Turkey and India confirmed their first cases of H1N1 flu on Saturday, all involving airline passengers arriving from the United States.

Thirty-eight countries have now confirmed cases of the flu strain, a mix of swine, human and avian viruses, which last month prompted the World Heath Organization to raise its global pandemic alert level to 5 on a 6-point scale.

The western Japanese city of Kobe said it would close some public schools for a week after eight people were confirmed as being infected with the new H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu.

Three of the eight were teenage students from the same school -- the first confirmed cases in Japan involving people who had not been overseas. The other five were from another school, Kyodo news agency said.

"We are just watching the developments very carefully," acting assistant WHO Director-General Keiji Fukuda told reporters. Fukuda said it was not clear at this stage whether the outbreak in Japan would cause the WHO to declare a full pandemic.

The WHO, whose data lags national tallies, earlier put the number of confirmed worldwide cases at 8,451, with 72 deaths.

The vast majority of deaths have been in Mexico, where the outbreak started. The United States has reported five, and Canada and Costa Rica one each.

Mexico's Health Ministry on Saturday raised the number of confirmed H1N1 flu deaths in that country to 68, up two from the previous total.

In Geneva, health negotiators from rich and poor countries failed on Saturday to clinch a full deal on virus sharing to produce vaccines, but said they had closed gaps on some tough political issues.

The H1N1 has given added urgency to the work of the intergovernmental meeting, set up two years ago by the WHO amid a scare about H5N1 influenza, or bird flu, .

FAMILY QUARANTINE

Turkey identified its first two cases in a family traveling to Iraq from the United States, health officials said.

A 26-year-old American man, traveling via Amsterdam, was found to be suffering from the virus after arriving at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport en route to Iraq on Friday, Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said. Thermal cameras at the airport detected that he had a high fever.

Healthcare workers then determined his mother was also infected, Health Ministry spokesman Harun Celik told Reuters.

Local news media reported earlier that the man's wife had contracted the disease, but Celik denied those reports, saying the rest of the family's health was fine.

The mother and son were quarantined along with other family members and were under observation at a Turkish research hospital, where they were being given anti-viral medication, Akdag said.

The Iraqi-American family was traveling on a KLM aircraft to Istanbul that was carrying 163 passengers, most of whom are now being monitored for signs of the flu, said Akdag.

"Everything is under control," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters. "Everything is being monitored closely."

India's Health Ministry confirmed on Saturday its first case of the H1N1 flu in an Indian man who had traveled from the United States, via Dubai, to the southern city of Hyderabad.

"He was identified at the screening at the airport and was quarantined, and his samples were drawn and they have tested positive," said health official Vineet Choudhary.

Those close to him had been isolated and their health was being monitored, Choudhary said. His co-passengers on the flight to India were also being tracked down. (Additional reporting by Jason Rhodes in Zurich, Matthias Williams in New Delhi, Robert Campbell in Mexico City, and Jonathan Lynn and Jason Rhodes in Geneva; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Peter Cooney)