WHO Fears Swine Flu Pandemic
The World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert to level five Wednesday indicating it fears a pandemic is imminent.
On Wednesday, the outbreak grew in terms of confirmed cases, people killed and countries with infections.
Health officials are scrambling to get more information about the virus for which there is no vaccine.
“All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization’s director-general.
She added: “We do not have all the answers right now but we will get them.”
Earlier, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said:
“It’s a virus that we’ve never seen before. There’s no background immunity in the population and it is spreading from human to human, all of which has the potential for a pandemic.”
Germany and Austria became the latest European countries to report swine flu on Wednesday, while the number of cases increased in the United Kingdom and Spain.
There are 148 confirmed cases in 11 countries, the majority in the United States, according to the WHO and national governments. Those figures include seven deaths in Mexico and one in the United States.
The virus spread to five more U.S. states, and the number of people in the United States infected with the 2009 H1N1 influenza strain grew to 91, the Centers for Disease Control reported on Wednesday.
That number includes the country’s first swine flu fatality: a 22-month-old child from Mexico who died of the illness at a Houston, Texas hospital on Monday.
Source: CNN
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