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World Health Organization

announces swine flu pandemic

BYLINE

By FRANK JORDANS/The Associated Press

DECK

EXCERPT

For the first time in 41 years, WHO has declared a global flu epidemic. The
organization is hoping the announcement will push drugmakers to ramp up
production of a swine flu vaccine, and goverments will increase efforts to contain the
virus.

BODY

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. The declaration will could 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 the
world to phase 6 — the agency's highest alert level — which means a pandemic, or

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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 (swine flu) virus is now unstoppable."

On Thursday, WHO said 74 countries had reported 28,774 cases of swine flu,
including 144 deaths. Chan described the virus as "moderate." According to WHO's
pandemic criteria, a global outbreak has begun when a new flu virus begins spreading
in two world regions.

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.

The 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.

After Thursday's meeting, Chan said the experts agreed there was wider spread of
swine flu than what was being reported.

Chan would not say which country tipped the world into the pandemic, but said all
countries and experts were agreed that it was time to declare a global outbreak.

WHO said it was is now recommending that flu vaccine makers start making swine
flu vaccine. Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC said theyit could start large-scale
production of pandemic vaccine in July,added comma but that it would take several
months before large quantities would be available.

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Many health experts say WHO's pandemic declaration could have come weeks
earlier,added comma but the agency 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 who has advised the U.S. government on pandemic
preparations.

Despite WHO's hopes, Thursday's announcement will almost certainly spark panic
about theadded: the 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 — a
move that some experts would consider an overreaction. The decision affected
overmore than 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 taken steps like increasing availability of flu-fighting
medicines and authorizing $1 billion for the development of a new vaccine against the
novel virus. 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

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child under 2.

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 said. Mexico has
confirmed 6,337 cases, including 108 deaths.

Cordova said he is concerned that other countries are not taking drastic measures to
stop its spread like Mexico, which closed schools, restaurants, and theaters, and
canceled public events after the government detected the epidemic in late April.

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."

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