While the swine flu outbreak has been milder than originally feared when it first emerged late last month, the local insurance industry is continuing to monitor developments closely.

The World Health Organisation says deaths remain confined to Mexico (45), the US (2), Canada (1) and Costa Rica (1).

Reinsurers say the impacts of the threatened pandemic so far have not translated to a strong reaction.

A Hannover Re spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au the company doesn’t expect any measurable effects on its reinsurance business from the outbreak disease at this point.

But ING’s life risk division Head of Products, Marketing and Reinsurance, Gerard Kerr, says reinsurer recommendations are “filtering through” in the form of exclusions.

He told insuranceNEWS.com.au he expects effective “swine flu exclusions” are being written into new life policies across the industry for people planning to visit Mexico.

“I don’t think we’ve actually applied it because we haven’t had anybody come to us and specifically say they’re on their way to Mexico,” Mr Kerr said.

“We’d probably wait for the epidemic to die down, particularly in Mexico, before we remove it.”

AMP says it continues to monitor the situation closely.

Chris Kirby, the insurer’s Head of Technical Strategies for Personal Wealth Protection, says “any prudent insurer” will take a keen interest in monitoring events that could have a significant impact on their risk portfolio.

“But at this stage we have no plans to adjust our contracts.”