WHO declares Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years
Pastor Dale Morgan
*WHO declares Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years*
By MARIA CHENG and FRANK JORDANS,
Associated Press Writers
GENEVA - The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic
Thursday _ the first global flu epidemic in 41 years _ as infections in
the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere
climbed to nearly 30,000 cases.
The long-awaited pandemic announcement is scientific confirmation that a
new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. WHO will
now ask drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine, which
it said would available after September. The declaration will also
prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.
WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the announcement Thursday after the
U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts. Chan said she
was moving to phase 6 _ the agency's highest alert level _ which means a
pandemic, or global epidemic, is under way.
"The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic
in the 21st century," Chan told reporters. "The virus is now unstoppable."
"However, we do not expect to see a sudden and dramatic jump in the
number of severe and fatal infections," she added.
On Thursday, WHO said 74 countries had reported 28,774 cases of swine
flu, including 144 deaths. Chan described the danger posed by the virus
as "moderate."
The agency has stressed that most cases are mild and require no
treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could overwhelm
hospitals and health authorities _ especially in poorer countries.
Still, about half of the people who have died from swine flu were
previously young and healthy _ people who are not usually susceptible to
flu. Swine flu is also crowding out regular flu viruses. Both features
are typical of pandemic flu viruses.
The last pandemic _ the Hong Kong flu of 1968 _ killed about 1 million
people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.
Swine flu is also continuing to spread during the start of summer in the
northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear with warm weather,
but swine flu is proving to be resilient.
"What this declaration does do is remind the world that flu viruses like
H1N1 need to be taken seriously," said Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S.
Secretary of Health and Human Services, warning that more cases could
crop up in the fall.
"We need to start preparing now in order to be ready for a possible H1N1
immunization campaign starting in late September," she said in a
statement from Washington.
Chan said WHO was now recommending that flu vaccine makers start making
swine flu vaccine. Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC said they could start
large-scale production of pandemic vaccine in July but that it would
take several months before large quantities would be available.
Glaxo spokesman Stephen Rea said the company's first doses of vaccine
would be reserved for countries who had ordered it in advance, including
Belgium, Britain and France. He said the company would also donate 50
million doses to WHO for poor countries.
Pascal Barollier, a spokesman for Sanofi-Aventis, said they were also
working on a pandemic vaccine but WHO had not yet asked them to start
producing mass quantities of it.
The pandemic decision might have been made much earlier if WHO had more
accurate information about swine flu's rising sweep through Europe. Chan
said she called the emergency meeting with flu experts after concerns
were raised that some countries like Britain were not accurately
reporting their cases.
Chan said the experts unanimously agreed there was a wider spread of
swine flu than what was being reported.
Chan would not say which country tipped the world into the pandemic, but
the agency's top flu expert, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, said the situation from
Australia seemed to indicate the virus was spreading rapidly there _ up
to 1,260 cases late Wednesday.
Many health experts said the world has been in a pandemic for weeks but
WHO became bogged down by politics. In May, several countries urged WHO
not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic
turmoil.
"This is WHO finally catching up with the facts," said Michael
Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota.
Despite WHO's hopes, Thursday's announcement will almost certainly spark
panic about spread of swine flu in some countries.
Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands of people worried
about swine flu flooded into hospitals this week, bringing emergency
health services in the capital of Buenos Aires to the brink of collapse.
Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from Chile was stoned by people
who thought a passenger on it had swine flu.
Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America, and the southern
hemisphere is moving into its winter flu season.
In Hong Kong on Thursday, the government ordered all kindergartens and
primary schools closed for two weeks after a dozen students tested
positive for swine flu. The decision affected over half a million students.
In the United States, where there have been more than 13,000 cases and
at least 27 deaths from swine flu, officials at the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said the move would not change how the
U.S. tackled swine flu.
"Our actions in the past month have been as if there was a pandemic in
this country," Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman, said Thursday.
The U.S. government has already increased the availability of
flu-fighting medicines and authorized $1 billion for the development of
a new swine flu vaccine. In addition, new cases seem to be declining in
many parts of the country, U.S. health officials say, as North America
moves out of its traditional winter flu season.
Still, New York City reported three more swine flu deaths Thursday,
including one child under 2, one teenager and one person in their 30s.
"Countries where outbreaks appear to have peaked should prepare for a
second wave of infection," Chan warned, adding that the virus could
mutate "without rhyme or reason, at any time."
In Mexico, where the epidemic was first detected, the outbreak peaked in
April. Mexico now has less than 30 cases reported a day, down from an
average of 300, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova told The Associated
Press. Mexico has confirmed 6,337 cases, including 108 deaths.
Cordova said he is concerned that other countries were not taking
drastic measures to stop its spread like Mexico, which closed schools,
restaurants, theaters, and canceled public events. He said the Mexican
government has strengthened its detection system to spot cases in most
of its 32 states to prepare for a possible second wave of infections in
the winter.
"There's much anxiety over how the virus will act in the Southern
Hemisphere, because the zone is currently showing a large number of new
cases, in particular Australia, Chile and Argentina," Cordova said.
Many experts said the declaration of a pandemic did not mean the virus
was getting deadlier.
"People might imagine a virus is now going to rush in and kill
everyone," said John Oxford, a professor of virology at St. Bart's and
Royal London Hospital. "That's not going to happen."
But Oxford said the swine flu virus might evolve into a more dangerous
strain in the future.
"That is always a possibility with influenza viruses," he said. "We have
to watch very carefully to see what this virus does."
___
AP Medical Writers Maria Cheng reported from London and Michael Stobbe
reported from Atlanta. Associated Press Writers Michael E. Miller in
Mexico City, Dikky Sinn in Hong Kong, Vincente L. Panetta in Buenos
Aires and Bradley S. Klapper in Geneva also contributed to this report.