Moving closer to Pandemic...

[Cat]

WHO moves closer to raising flu pandemic alert

 

29 Apr 2009 18:05:19 GMT

Source: Reuters

 

* Flu infecting people who have not been to Mexico

 

* Virus spreading between humans, not from contact with pigs

 

* New strain causing everything from mild to fatal illness

 

(Recasts with details of infection patterns, virus risks)

 

By Laura MacInnis

 

GENEVA, April 29 (Reuters) - Swine flu is infecting people who have not been to Mexico and the outbreak shows no sign of slowing down, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.

 

The WHO's emergency committee had not scheduled a meeting to increase its pandemic alert level but was likely to do so soon, acting Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda said.

 

"It appears we are moving closer to that, but we are not there yet," he told a news conference. "At this point there is very intense analysis of all available information going on."

 

WHO experts are scrutinising the transmission patterns of swine flu to see if it is spreading among people who have never been to Mexico -- the epicentre of the outbreak -- or had close contact with those who had.

 

Fukuda said people who have not travelled were among those falling ill, although many of those had contact with people who had recently travelled to Mexico.

 

Once the disease showed signs of spreading in a sustained way within communities in the United States, Europe or elsewhere, Fukuda said the WHO would look to again raise the alert level, as it did on Monday from 3 to 4.

 

The U.N. agency's official guidance indicates: "the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent."

 

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan could call an emergency committee meeting at short notice, Fukuda said, saying this could happen "whenever the evidence suggests".

 

In its own laboratories, the WHO has confirmed only eight deaths from swine flu, including seven in Mexico and one in the United States, a case that U.S. authorities have said was a Mexican toddler. Mexico has reported as many as 159 deaths from the virus.

 

Fukuda also cited 114 confirmed swine flu infections in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Israel, Spain, Britain and New Zealand, with mild symptoms reported outside Mexico. "It is clear that the virus is spreading and we don't see any evidence of this slowing down at this point," he said.

 

There is no link between contact with pigs or eating pork and infection with the virus, which is spreading from person to person and appears to cause more diarrhoea than seasonal flu.

 

Infection with swine flu could cause symptoms from very mild to fatal illness, according to Fukuda, who stressed more analysis was needed before the virus risks could be understood.

 

"It is possibly premature to think of this as a mild pandemic or as a severe pandemic," he said.

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LT910095.htm

 

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WHO set to raise pandemic alert within hours-sources

 

29 Apr 2009 18:38:28 GMT

Source: Reuters

 

GENEVA, April 29 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation is set to increase its pandemic flu alert level to 5 -- its second-highest level -- within hours, sources said on Wednesday.

 

"Things are moving fast," said one well-informed source. Another said the WHO was likely to increase the alert by one step, from 4 to 5, in response to the spreading swine flu virus, saying: "I don't think it will be 6." (Reporting by Laura MacInnis and Stephanie Nebehay)

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LT649047.htm

 

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