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29 March 2024

WHO raises flu threat level

Children wearing protective masks wait to check in for their flights at Lima's Airport in the port of Callao, April 29, 2009. More than 5000 passengers and crew members who arrived from North America have passed through a medical inspection at Lima's International Airport to avoid the spread of the swine flu in the country. Out of the six suspicious flu cases detected in Peru, one is still under evaluation for swine flu, authorities said. (REUTERS)

Published
By Reuters
The World Health Organization said on Wednesday the world is at the brink of a pandemic, raising its threat level as the swine flu virus spread and killed the first person outside of Mexico, a toddler in Texas.

"Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world," WHO Director General Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva as she raised the official alert level to phase 5, the last step before a pandemic.

"The biggest question is this: how severe will the pandemic be, especially now at the start," Chan said. But she added that the world "is better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in history."

Nearly a week after the H1N1 swine flu virus first emerged in California and Texas and was found to have caused dozens of deaths in Mexico, Spain reported the first case in Europe of swine flu in a person who had not been to Mexico, illustrating the danger of person-to-person transmission.

Both US and European officials have said they expect to see swine flu deaths.

President Barack Obama said during an evening news conference at the White House there was no need for panic and rejected the possibility of closing the border with Mexico.

'THE HORSES ARE OUT'

"At this point, (health officials) have not recommended a border closing," he said. "From their perspective, it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States."

Obama also praised his predecessor for stockpiling anti-viral medication in anticipation of such an outbreak.

"I think the Bush administration did a good job of creating the infrastructure so that we can respond," Obama said. "For example, we've got 50 million courses of anti-viral drugs in the event that they're needed."

Despite worries that a major flu outbreak could hit the struggling global economy, world stocks rallied on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said the US recession appeared to be easing.

Almost all cases outside Mexico have had mild symptoms, and only a handful have required hospitalization.

Chan also urged companies who make the drugs to ramp up production. Two antiviral drugs -- Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline and Tamiflu, made by Roche AG and Gilead Sciences Inc. -- have been shown to work against the H1N1 swine flu strain.

Drugmakers have donated millions of doses of their drugs to the WHO. She also alerted governments to be ready to distribute stockpiles of their drugs. Vaccine makers were on standby to begin making a new vaccine if needed.

In Mexico, where up to 159 people have died from the virus and around 1,300 more are being tested for infection, people struggled with an emergency that has brought normal life virtually to a standstill over the past week.

MEXICAN BOY DIES IN TEXAS

Germany, Austria and Peru reported cases of the illness, bringing the number of affected countries to 10. Peru said its case involved a woman who had traveled to Mexico and its health minister immediately announced the suspension of all commercial flights arriving from that country.

Texas officials said a 22-month-old boy had died while on a family visit from Mexico, marking the first confirmed US swine flu death.

In the Texas border city of Brownsville, where the young Mexican was first diagnosed and many residents have families on both sides of the Rio Grande river border, some residents said they were now reluctant to venture south to Mexico.

"I am extremely concerned because you could die," said Santiago Perez, 18, a student at Pace High School.

Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's newly confirmed health secretary, spent her first day in office on a rapid-fire media tour as the administration sought to calm public fears while urging public health vigilance.

"We know that the cases will continue to rise," Sebelius said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the Customs and Border Patrol was keeping an eye out for sick travelers, as usual, and had checked 49 people with flu-like symptoms. She said 41 had been cleared of H1N1 infection and eight were still being studied.

"We are preparing for the worst; hoping for the best," Napolitano said. "All of us should be dusting off our business contingency plans, looking at things like telecommuting and the like so that things keep operating."

Mexico's central bank warned the outbreak could deepen the nation's recession, hurting an economy that already shrank by as much as 8 per cent from the previous year in the first quarter.

France said it would seek a European Union ban on flights to Mexico.

The EU, the United States and Canada have advised against non-essential travel to Mexico, a popular tourist destination, with many of the cases linked to travel there. Many tourists already in Mexico were hurrying to leave, crowding airports and trying to change their tickets.

"We didn't want to get stuck here," said Australian Alex Grinter, who left her beach vacation in the southern state of Oaxaca to get an early flight to Vancouver.

In Mexico City, a metropolis of 20 million, all schools, restaurants, nightclubs and public events have been shut down to try to stop the sickness from spreading.

H1N1 swine flu is seen as the biggest risk since H5N1 avian flu re-emerged in 2003, killing 257 people of 421 infected in 15 countries. In 1968 a "Hong Kong" flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally, and a 1957 pandemic killed 2 million.

Seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people in a normal year, including healthy children in rich countries.