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Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Americas | WHO fears pandemic is 'imminent' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/8025931.stm

Health Swine Flu Margaret Chan WHO

shared by Argos Media on 30 Apr 09 - Cached
  • The UN's World Health Organization has raised the alert over swine flu to level five - indicating human-to-human transmission in at least two countries. It is a "strong signal that a pandemic is imminent", the WHO says.
  • In Mexico, at the epicentre of the outbreak, people have been urged to stay at home over the next five days. There are numerous cases elsewhere - the highest number outside Mexico in the US - and Europeans have been told it is certain there will be deaths.
  • New cases were confirmed in Switzerland, Costa Rica and Peru European health ministers were set to meet for emergency talks to co-ordinate national efforts to contain the spread of the virus Ghana has become the latest country to ban pork imports as a precaution against swine flu, though no cases have been found in the West African country.
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  • Already, schools across Mexico have closed, public gatherings are restricted and archaeological sites have been placed off-limits.
  • Meanwhile in Mexico, President Felipe Calderon has announced the partial suspension of non-essential work and services from 1 to 5 May - a holiday period there. In a TV address, he urged people to stay in with their families - saying there was "no place as safe as your own home".
  • Ms Chan stressed on Wednesday that there was no danger from eating properly cooked pork. She advised hygiene measures such as hand-washing to prevent infection and said it was important "to maintain a level of calm".
  • Mexico is already being hit hard by the global economic slowdown, and the country's finance minister says swine flu could cut a further half-percent of GDP.
  • Officials have put the number of suspected deaths from swine flu in Mexico at 168, although just eight deaths have been confirmed, with 26 infections positively tested.
  • In Europe, the director-general of health and consumer protection, Robert Madelin, said the continent was well prepared but nonetheless deaths from the disease were expected. "It is not a question of whether people will die, but more a question of how many. Will it be hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands?", he said, speaking to Reuters news agency.
  • Spain has seen the first case of a person contracting swine flu without having travelled there.
  • After Mexico, the US has recorded the next highest number of confirmed cases, with 91 - and the first death of swine flu outside Mexico, after a visiting Mexican child died in Texas.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Americas | Swine flu cases spread across US - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8032188.stm

Health Swine Flu

shared by Argos Media on 04 May 09 - Cached
  • Some 226 swine flu cases have been confirmed in 30 states and more cases are expected, US health officials say. They said most cases were mild - although a small girl visiting from Mexico has died - and the spread was no worse than seasonal flu.
  • WHO chief Margaret Chan said the real test would come when the winter influenza season hits countries. "We hope the virus fizzles out, because if it doesn't we are heading for a big outbreak," she told the UK's Financial Times.
  • • The outbreak is having diplomatic repercussions, with a row breaking out between Mexico and China after Beijing quarantined 70 Mexicans • Spain raises the number of confirmed cases from 40 to 44, making it the worst-hit country in Europe • Two new cases are confirmed in France bringing the total to four, the AFP news agency reports • Turkish media reports of a patient dying from swine flu in the southern Antalya province are denied by a hospital spokeswoman to Reuters news agency
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  • The WHO said on Monday that 985 cases of the virus had been officially reported across 20 countries. Person-to-person transmission has been confirmed in six countries.
  • "Virtually all of the United States probably has this virus circulating now," Dr Anne Schuchat said. "That doesn't mean that everybody's infected, but within the communities, the virus has arrived." She said that although she expected cases to become more severe and to lead to deaths, this in itself would not be unusual as every year 36,000 people die in the US after contracting seasonal flu.
  • Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said that the virus appeared to have peaked between 23-28 April. "The evolution of the epidemic is now in its declining phase," he told a news conference.
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