Swine flu outbreak an 'international emergency - WHO
GENEVA ? A new flu virus that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico ? 13 more than previously reported ? could start a global epidemic, the World Health Organization warned Saturday as the disease spread further in the United States and Mexico.
The Mexican government says the flu has probably killed 81 people, raising the likely death toll from 68, and that more than 1,300 people were believed to have been infected with the new strain, which causes severe respiratory illnesses.
Most of the dead in Mexico were aged between 25 and 45.
In Mexico?s crowded capital of 20 million people, where most of the victims have died, jittery Mexicans were buying up surgical masks and foodstuffs Saturday.
Earlier in the day, after a meeting of WHO?s emergency committee, the UN agency said it was recommending that ?all countries intensify surveillance for unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia.?
On Friday, Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said there are no confirmed cases of the new H1N1 flu strain ? a mixture of swine, human and avian flu viruses ? in Canada.
"While there is no immediate threat to Canadians at this time, we will always be vigilant," Aglukkaq said.
Reports that two people were quarantined in Montreal, suspected of being infected with the strain, were strongly denied Saturday.
Johanne Simard, an official of the Montreal regional health board, called the reports ?rumour? and said there are no cases of swine flu at Lakeshore General Hospital and no quarantines in effect.
Also Saturday, the B.C. Ministry of Health said there have been no reported cases of the severe respiratory illness in B.C., but issued an information bulletin that stated: ?Based on currently available information, the Public Health Agency of Canada has issued a travel health notice regarding swine flu in Mexico, California and Texas.?
It did not call for an official advisory or travel ban to Mexico, however.
So far, the swine flu strain has been confirmed only in Mexico and a handful of U.S. states.
Eleven cases, none fatal, have been confirmed in California, Kansas and Texas, and eight schoolchildren in New York City caught a type A influenza virus that was likely to be the swine flu, health officials said on Saturday.
In Colombia, five people who arrived from Mexico with flu symptoms were being monitored. There is also one possible case in London ? a member of an aircrew who was taken to a London hospital as a precaution after developing flu-like symptoms on a flight from Mexico City.
As far away as Hong Kong and Japan, health officials stepped up checks of travellers with flu-like symptoms, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was actively looking for new infections in the United States.
?We are worried and because we are worried we are acting aggressively on a number of fronts,? the CDC?s Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters. ?The situation is serious.?
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported Saturday U.S. officials were unaware of the growing outbreak in Mexico for days after Mexico started bringing in protective measures. And, the newspaper said Canadian officials knew the deaths were caused by the new strain before their U.S. counterparts ? it was scientists at the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Lab who confirmed the new strain of flu in samples sent by Mexican authorities.
WHO chief Margaret Chan said in a teleconference the outbreak is ?clearly an animal strain of the H1N1 virus and it has pandemic potential because it is infecting people.
?However, we cannot say on the basis of currently available laboratory, epidemiological and clinical evidence whether or not it will indeed cause a pandemic."
The United Nations health agency has warned for several years that a new virus strain could spark a human influenza pandemic that could sweep around the globe and kill millions.
?Experts at WHO and elsewhere believe that the world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century?s three pandemics occurred,? WHO said.
The ?Hong Kong? flu, as it was called, killed about one million people globally.
WHO?s pandemic alert currently stands at level 3, which indicates ?no or very limited human-to-human transmission.?
WHO officials have not decided yet whether to increase the alert level to 4 or higher, saying Saturday that ?more information is needed before a decision could be made concerning the appropriateness of the current phase 3.?
Level 4 would confirm evidence of ?increased human to human transmission.?
While Chan said there were currently no indications of outbreaks elsewhere in the world, WHO is alarmed at the prospect of the flu strain spreading outside North America.
Health officials worldwide should also be alert to large incidences of severe or fatal flu-like illness in groups other than young children and the elderly, the ages usually at highest risk from normal seasonal flu, she said.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has issued an emergency decree giving his government special powers to run tests on sick people and order them isolated. The government has also suspended public events and closed bars, restaurants and schools to try to halt the spread of the virus.
WHO said it was too soon to announce travel advisories or to advise drugmakers to switch to producing a new vaccine ? to be derived from the new virus ? from their traditional production of seasonal influenza vaccines.
"We do not yet have a complete picture of the epidemiology or the risk, including possible spread beyond the currently affected areas," Chan said.
"Nonetheless, in the assessment of WHO, this is a serious situation which must be watched very closely."
A new pandemic would deal a major blow to a world economy already knocked into its worst recession in decades by the crisis in financial markets.
For more information:
Public Health Agency of Canada at www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/index-eng.php; or
World Health Organization at www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/investigation.htm.
FACT BOX
Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus.
The symptoms of swine flu in people can be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza infection and include fever, cough, headache, general aches, fatigue and other symptoms.
Some people with swine flu have also reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
