A rise in swine flu cases in Austria may pressure The World Health Organization to declare the first pandemic in 41 years. The WHO is also worried about an intense illness caused from the disease in Canada.
Keiji Fukuda, the chief of the WHO, said the agency wants to steer clear of panic or governments taking the wrong approaches – if it does announce a pandemic. This said, some experts of the flu believe that the world is already in a pandemic and that WHO has surrendered to demands that an announcement be delayed.
Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general, believes that we are in Phase 6. She also said that she thinks it is imperative to confirm reports that the virus is starting to be established outside of North America before a pandemic is announced. “I need to be convinced that I have indisputable evidence,” she said.
Chan will soon conduct a conference call with governments so she can confirm some of the reports before making a proper announcement.
According to the WHO, 26,563 people in 73 countries have been infected by the virus and it has caused 140 deaths. North America has seen most of the cases, but Australia has recently seen a sharp escalation as the amount of cases shoots up to more than 1,000.
The good news is that in most of the 73 countries, the virus has caused only mild illnesses. On the other hand, the WHO is concerned because some of the deaths have happened to previously healthy adults. This fact has urged the WHO to rank the outbreak as “moderate” for now.
Fukuda said that about 50 percent of the people who have died from the H1N1 infection were healthy before, making this one of the reasons that has given the organization the most worry.
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