WHO Declares Influenza A H1N1 a Global Pandemic
 Printer-friendly
|
 Email article |
Related subjects: Americas, Asia / Pacific, Diplomacy & Politics, Health Science, Healthcare Policy, Science & Technology, Severino Villalonso, The Global Intercept, Travel, U.S. news, United Nations Comments (4)
The new multi-reassorted strain of flu, Influenza A H1N1, also called “swine flu”, has been officially declared a global pandemic, with over 28,000 confirmed cases of infection across 74 nations. The classification is a geographical judgment, referring to the flu strain’s spread on multiple continents, but does not related to severity. Officials said the pandemic appears to be of moderate severity.
140 people have been confirmed to have died worldwide, as a result of infection with the H1N1 virus, despite the 28,000 infections. The virus has continued to spread in the United States, Europe and Australia, making it an infection with persistent contagion on three continents. Africa, Asia and South America, also have confirmed cases, meaning the virus has now reached the human population in every region of the world.
The US is the single country most affected by the virus, with 13,217 confirmed cases of infection. Canada has 2,978 and Mexico 5,717, clearly making North America the epicenter of the global pandemic. But Chile, Australia and the European Union also have over 1,000 cases each, demonstrating the virus’ global spread.
[ad#cafsen-intext]
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Phase 6 Epidemic Alert level, classed as pandemic underway, is the highest alert level and means “A global flu pandemic has begun, including community-level outbreaks in at least two world regions”, according to the AP. The declaration is aimed at coordinating international efforts at treatment and prevention to limit the further spread of the virus and guard against the outbreak of a 2nd strain of H1N1.
Officials in Australia, Chile, Japan, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S. were asked for information on cases and measures taken to mitigate the disease, known as H1N1, before the WHO moves to the top of its six-stage pandemic warning scale, Chile’s Health Minister Alvaro Erazo said in a statement yesterday.
Hong Kong has suspended classes at all schools for 14 days, beginning tomorrow, in order to prevent the further spread of H1N1 infection among students. Hong Kong’s aggressive prevention efforts stem from the 1968 Hong Kong flu pandemic, the last officially declared flu pandemic, which killed over 1 million people worldwide over two years. Hong Kong has not been significantly impacted so far by the A/H1N1 outbreak.
The worst flu pandemic on record is the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak, which killed an unknown number of people between 20 million and 50 million, around the world, over 2 to 3 years. The 1957 Asian flu was first isolated in China, and killed over 2 million people in 2 waves of infection, the first heavily affecting children, the second the elderly.
The number of cases in Chile has quadrupled since the government began including cases reported from private health clinics in its official national reports. It is the one country outside North America with the most infections.
Scotland, though, has recently discovered its rate of hospitalization from the virus was on par with the US rate. The new figures prompted health officials to urge doctors to diagnose infection, to avoid lag-time for results from remote testing. The Guardian reports:
The Scottish health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said public health tactics had changed after it emerged the virus was spreading uncontrolled.
Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament this morning that hospitalisation rates were similar to those in the US. She indicated that attempts to contain the virus had failed and the strategy would be to limit its spread. Doctors in the most-affected areas – Glasgow, Dunoon and Paisley –would be allowed to make a swine flu diagnosis in their surgeries rather than wait for specialist or laboratory tests.
The UN Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-moon has said the world “must be watchful” and that the alert is of vital importance to public health, but not grave cause for concern. The fatality of the virus has been less than expected, but officials want to be on guard to ensure that future outbreaks are not more aggressive or widespread than the pandemic seen to date.
| Printer-friendly
|
Email article |
CafeSentido Partner Sites:
[...] WHO Declares Influenza A H1N1 a Global Pandemic [...]
[...] WHO Declares Influenza A H1N1 a Global Pandemic [...]
[...] WHO Declares Influenza A H1N1 a Global Pandemic [...]
[...] WHO Declares Influenza A H1N1 a Global Pandemic [...]