WHO raises threat level to Phase 4

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/04/2009427203648307397.html

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu by one level, just two steps short of declaring a full-scale pandemic.

Following talks in Geneva on Monday, the UN body announced that the alert over the flu, which is suspected of having killed more than 149 people in Mexico, had been raised to “phase 4″.

The alert level means the WHO believes the flu can be transmitted between humans to cause community-level outbreaks, but that it can still be contained before becoming a pandemic.“A pandemic is not considered inevitable at this time,” Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general, said.

 

“The situation is fluid and the situation continues to evolve.”

Sandra Mournier-Jack, a lecturer in health policy at the London school of hygiene and tropical medicine, told Al Jazeera that people should avoid panicing over the the new alert level.

“We should be, in a way, more alarmed, but at the same time we shouldn’t panic because there are a lot of things we don’t know about this disease at the moment,” she said.

“What is that fatality rate? We don’t really know that. It could be as much as two per cent of people catching the disease, but it could be a lot less than that.”

Virus spreads

Besides Mexico, swine flu cases have been reported from the United States, Canada and Europe.

The US has confirmed 40 cases, with 20 new cases from a New York school where students had returned from a school trip.

In the UK, authorities said two people in Scotland had tested positive for swine flu infection and were being treated in isolation in a hospital near Glasgow, although both were said to be “recovering well”.

Only Mexico has reported deaths from the virus.

Countries across the world are acting to halt the spread of the new H1N1 virus, apparently a mix of human, pig and bird viruses.

Mexico closed all schools across the country until May 6 as a precaution. Schools had already been closed in Mexico City and in five of Mexico’s 32 states.

The US government declared a public health emergency and advised against non-essential travel to Mexico, a call echoed by Androulla Vassiliou, the European Union’s health chief.

Barack Obama, the US president, said that officials are closely monitoring the cases of swine flu in the country.

“This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert. But it is not a cause for alarm,” he said.

Preventative measures

People are also being tested for suspected cases in France, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.

Other suspected cases are being investigated in Brazil, New Zealand and Israel.

Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan have said travellers returning from flu-affected areas who displayed symptoms of fever would be quarantined.

Several countries have also banned imports of pork and pork products from Mexico and the three US states reporting cases of swine flu, although scientists say the disease would not be contracted by eating pork meat.

New Zealand, Israel and several other countries have implemented new security measures at airports and are putting sick visitors under observation.

Despite the raised alert level, the WHO has recommended countries not close their borders or restrict international travel.

Should swine flu escalate into a pandemic, the world is thought to be better prepared to cope with it than it has been in the past.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=awExwu9ySdyg&refer=asia

April 27 (Bloomberg) — Asian stocks and U.S. futures fell on concern the outbreak of swine flu will slow the recovery in the global economy.

Air China Ltd. tumbled 13 percent in Hong Kong, while Genting Bhd., Asia’s biggest listed casino operator, lost 5.7 percent in Kuala Lumpur on speculation the spread of the disease beyond Mexico, where the first cases were discovered, will hurt tourism. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. lost 5.9 percent after the Financial Times said Allianz SE and American Express Co. will sell shares in the Chinese lender.

“Health scares can create anxiety in the market,” said Nader Naeimi, an investment strategist at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney, which manages about $90 billion. “The Asian market’s reacting to big falls in the U.S. futures on fears over the economic impact of swine flu.”

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threat level raised and the msm starts on how the swine flu will impact the “recovery”..the ‘recovery” is a lie so this will be the “patsy” to take the blame for the continuing economic woes..also a sizable distraction to the current torture investigations underway in the USA right now..

401

~ by seeker401 on April 28, 2009.