Geneva (dpa) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday
that it was nearing the point where it would declare a global
pandemic of the A(H1N1) influenza virus.
"We are moving towards, more or less, a pandemic situation," Keiji
Fukuda, the WHO's director of health security, said - adding that
this would refer to an increased geographic reach of the virus,
rather than an increase in severity.
Currently the WHO had its influenza alert system at the
penultimate level, Phase 5.
"By saying we are going to Phase 6, this would mean the spread
continues," Fukuda said, adding that "this does not mean the severity
of the situation has increased."
The WHO said it wanted to make certain countries were prepared for
a regrading upwards, so as to avoid panic or "adverse reactions."
He described the virus, also known as swine flu, as generally
moderate, though there were some severe cases.
Of the 26,563 cases in 73 countries, 140 were lethal.
The alert system is based on geographic spread. Fukuda said the
evidence was such that the health agency was near to declare the
highest level, which would indicate sustained community spread of the
virus in two geographic regions of the world.
Already, North America, where the majority of cases, and nearly
all deaths, occurred, was considered to have a sustained spread.
Most of the cases were continuing to occur in people younger than
60-years-old, a phenomenon the WHO could not yet explain.
Similarly, health experts has recently noticed that the Inuit
population in northern Canada were being hit relatively hard, without
a clear explanation.
Fukuda described the time at the start of the spread of new or
mutated viruses as "periods of uncertainty," which he said was
fitting for the current situation.
Copyright 2009 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH