Xtra News Community 2
March 29, 2024, 03:51:23 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Welcome to Xtra News Community 2 — please also join our XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP.
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links BITEBACK! XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP Staff List Login Register  

WHO to raise swine flu alert level to 5

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: WHO to raise swine flu alert level to 5  (Read 66 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
DazzaMc
Don't give me Karma!
Admin Staff
Absolutely Fabulously Incredibly Shit-Hot Member
*
Posts: 5557


« on: April 29, 2009, 10:09:07 am »

WHO awaits U.S. confirmation on human flu spread

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it awaited formal confirmation from U.S. authorities that the new swine flu virus has spread significantly between people, a sign that could indicate an "imminent" influenza pandemic.

Confirmation that infected people in two countries are spreading the new disease to their families or contacts in a sustained way would meet the WHO's criteria for declaring a phase 5 alert on its scale of 1 to 6.

The U.N. agency raised its pandemic alert level to phase 4 from phase 3 on Monday as the virus jumped to Europe.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday some people who have had contact with confirmed cases were also developing flu-like symptoms.

"We're still awaiting for a final confirmation from the U.S. authorities, but it appears that there's a number of cases in New York which appear to be human-to-human transmission," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing.

Such secondary transmission of the virus was "probable," he later told reporters, adding: "If we have a confirmation from the United States or Canada, we could move to phase 5."

U.S. authorities are studying an outbreak in New York where many schoolchildren have caught the disease after returning from a trip to Mexico.

Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director for health security and environment, said it was possible that the virus could spark widespread infection in areas of multiple countries -- setting off what could prove to be a "very mild pandemic."

"In New York City, some of the studies show people who became ill did not travel, again suggesting the virus has the ability to have person-to-person transmission, to transmit from travelers to people who did not travel," he told reporters.

"So there is definitely the possibility that this virus can establish that kind of community-wide capacity in multiple countries. It is definitely a very serious possibility."

The emergency committee recommended moving to phase 4 on Monday, but WHO has not announced any future meetings. Its experts could convene at any time to make such decisions.

People have occasionally caught swine flu from a pig but it has stopped there. Avian influenza has occasionally spread from one person to just one other person and stopped there.

But the new H1N1 flu appears to be spreading beyond that limited chain, which is what worries the WHO.

CENTRAL QUESTION

More than 15 WHO epidemiological experts have been deployed in Mexico to help authorities combat the outbreaks in Mexico City and other areas.

They are helping to collect new data and ensure that virus specimens are tested to shed new light on the epidemic which Fukuda hoped would be forthcoming in the near future.

So far, 26 swine flu cases in Mexico have been confirmed by laboratory testing, including seven deaths, according to WHO.

In all, the WHO has official laboratory confirmation of a total of 79 cases of the new swine flu virus worldwide. They include 40 confirmed cases in the United States, 26 in Mexico, 6 in Canada, 2 in Spain, 2 in Britain and 3 in New Zealand.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said on Tuesday it had confirmed a total of 64 human cases of swine flu across the country.

The WHO's official total does not include 2 cases which have been announced by authorities in Israel. The Geneva-based agency requires formal legal notification of cases.

Mexican authorities say the new strain has killed up to 149 people in Mexico, but are still investigating.

A central question is why Mexico is the only country so far where deaths have been confirmed, although the mortality rate has been relatively low in relation to the number of cases, while elsewhere infections have been mild.

"We don't understand why the disease has been more severe in Mexico," Hartl said.


http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-SwineFlu/idUSTRE53R3WH20090428



Just to be clear.
Over the past few days WHO has merged stage 5 and 6 of the Pandemic Alert Level. Stage 5 is now a full blown pandemic.
I beleive they did this so as to not sound so alerting when they do move to stage 6.

More info below.



Phase 4 is characterized by verified human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus able to cause “community-level outbreaks.” The ability to cause sustained disease outbreaks in a community marks a significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic. Any country that suspects or has verified such an event should urgently consult with WHO so that the situation can be jointly assessed and a decision made by the affected country if implementation of a rapid pandemic containment operation is warranted. Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion.

Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.

During the post-peak period, pandemic disease levels in most countries with adequate surveillance will have dropped below peak observed levels. The post-peak period signifies that pandemic activity appears to be decreasing; however, it is uncertain if additional waves will occur and countries will need to be prepared for a second wave.

Previous pandemics have been characterized by waves of activity spread over months. Once the level of disease activity drops, a critical communications task will be to balance this information with the possibility of another wave. Pandemic waves can be separated by months and an immediate “at-ease” signal may be premature.

In the post-pandemic period, influenza disease activity will have returned to levels normally seen for seasonal influenza. It is expected that the pandemic virus will behave as a seasonal influenza A virus. At this stage, it is important to maintain surveillance and update pandemic preparedness and response plans accordingly. An intensive phase of recovery and evaluation may be required.

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html
Report Spam   Logged

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter


Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Open XNC2 Smileys
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum


Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy
Page created in 0.034 seconds with 14 queries.