WHO declares Swine flu pandemic: 1st in 41 years

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WHO: Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years

By Cheng And Jordans, APress Writers – 29 mins ago

GENEVA – Swine flu is now formally a pandemic, a declaration by U.N. health

officials that will speed vaccine production and spur government spending to

combat the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. Thursday's announcement by the

World Health Organization doesn't mean the virus is any more lethal — only that

its spread is considered unstoppable.

Since it was first detected in late April in Mexico and the United States, swine

flu has reached 74 countries, infecting nearly 29,000 people. Most who catch the

bug have only mild symptoms and don't need medical treatment.

WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the long-awaited declaration after the U.N.

agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts and said she was moving to

phase 6 — the agency's highest alert level — which means a pandemic is under

way.

" The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the

21st century, " Chan said in Geneva.

Dr. Frieden, the new head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, said in Atlanta that he does not expect widespread public anxiety in

the United States as a result of the declaration, noting it came nearly two

months after the virus was identified.

For many weeks, U.S. health officials have been treating it as a pandemic,

increasing the availability of anti-viral flu medicines and pouring money into a

possible vaccination program. And scientists have grown to understand that the

virus is generally not much more severe than the seasonal flu.

" That helps to tamp down any fears that may be excessive, " Frieden said at a

news conference — his first as CDC director.

But the virus can still be deadly and may change into a more frightening form in

the near future, and so people should not be complacent, he added.

So far, swine flu has caused 144 deaths, compared with ordinary flu that kills

up to 500,000 people a year.

The pandemic 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, such as Britain, were not accurately reporting their cases.

Chan said the experts unanimously agreed there was a wider spread of swine flu

than was being reported.

She would not say which country tipped the world into the pandemic, but WHO flu

chief Keiji Fukuda said the situation from Australia seemed to indicate the

virus was spreading rapidly there — more than 1,300 cases were reported by

Thursday.

In Chile, authorities have identified almost 1,700 cases to WHO.

Many health experts said the world has been in a pandemic for weeks but WHO

became too bogged down by politics to declare one. In May, several countries

urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic

turmoil. At the time, WHO said it would rewrite its pandemic definition to avoid

announcing one.

But with the recent surge in cases across Europe, Chile, Australia and Japan,

the agency was under increasing pressure to acknowledge a pandemic.

" This is WHO finally catching up with the facts, " said Osterholm, a flu

expert at the University of Minnesota.

Ropeik, an expert in risk perception and communication at Harvard

University, says the word pandemic is less frightening than when emerged during

worries about bird flu a few years ago.

He said the " soft buildup " to declaring swine flu a pandemic has been helpful.

" That allows people to get used to what is otherwise a scary word, understand

the particulars of the disease, and that should mean reaction will be a little

more information-based and a little less emotional, " Ropeik said in an e-mail.

WHO will now recommend that pharmaceutical companies make swine flu vaccine. The

agency typically recommends which flu strains drug companies should use in the

vaccines. In a global outbreak, WHO also advises whether companies should make

pandemic vaccine.

The decision to make pandemic vaccine is a gamble. Most flu vaccine makers

cannot make both regular seasonal flu vaccine and pandemic vaccine at the same

time. That means they must decide which one the world will need more.

Drug giant GlaxoKline PLC said it could start commercial production of

pandemic vaccine in July but that it would take months before large quantities

are available.

Glaxo spokesman Rea said the company's first doses of vaccine would be

reserved for countries who had ordered it in advance, including Belgium, Britain

and France. He said Glaxo would also donate 50 million doses to WHO for poor

countries.

Pascal Barollier, a spokesman for Sanofi-Aventis, said they were also working on

a pandemic vaccine but WHO had not yet asked them to start making mass

quantities of it.

WHO described the pandemic as " moderate. " Fukuda said people should not get

overly anxious about the virus. " Understand it, put it in context, and then you

get on with things, " he said.

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.

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.

" What this declaration does do is remind the world that flu viruses like H1N1

need to be taken seriously, " said U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

Kathleen Sebelius, warning that more cases could crop up in the fall.

Now that a pandemic has been declared, some countries might be prompted to

devote more money to containing the virus. Many developed countries have

pandemic preparedness plans that link spending to a WHO declaration.

The U.N. is keen to avoid panic. " We must guard against rash and discriminatory

action, such as travel bans or trade restrictions, " said U.N. Secretary-General

Ban Ki-moon.

Fear has already gripped Argentina, where thousands have flooded hospitals this

week, bringing emergency health services in Buenos Aires to the brink of

collapse during winter weather. Last month, a bus arriving in Argentina from

Chile was stoned by people who thought a passenger had swine flu.

China has quarantined travelers, including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, on the

slightest suspicion of contact with an infected person.

The U.S. government has already increased the availability of flu-fighting

medicines and authorized $1 billion for developing a new swine flu vaccine. 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 a

child under 2, a teenager and a person in their 30s.

" Countries where outbreaks appear to have peaked should prepare for a second

wave of infection, " Chan warned.

AP Medical Writers Cheng reported from London and Stobbe

contributed from Atlanta. Jordans reported from Geneva. E. in

Mexico City, Edith Lederer in New York, Dikky Sinn in Hong Kong, e L.

Panetta in Buenos Aires, and Bradley S. Klapper and Eliane Engeler in Geneva

also contributed.

http://news./s/ap/20090611/ap_on_he_me/un_un_swine_flu