WHO declares swine flu pandemic
First pandemic declared in 41 years
Acceding to a global rise in A(H1N1) infections, the World Health Organization today raised its pandemic alert level for swine flu to level 6—its highest level.
Asking member nations not to impose restrictions on travel or anything that might interfere with commerce, the organization stressed that the alert level reflects the widespread nature of the flu—its “unstoppability”—but not the severity of its symptoms or the number of its fatalities, which so far appear to be below the levels posed by so-called “seasonal” flu.
Indeed, WHO recommends that drug manufacturers stay on track with producing their annual allotments of seasonal flu vaccines before switching over to produce vaccines for swine flu.
In a report early last week, Health Spectator had reported that the novel H1N1 epidemic had technically achieved pandemic status according to WHO’s guidelines just by virtue of its rapid spread in Australia. The outbreak began in North America, and WHO guidelines specify a pandemic level 6 when the infection has achieved uncontrolled human-to-human transmission in more than one part of the globe.
There have been 28,774 infections reported in 74 countries to date, including 144 deaths, according to WHO’s latest tally of laboratory-confirmed cases.
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