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Swine Flu

WHO mulls pandemic alert globally

AFP, Geneva
The World Health Organisation was under pressure yesterday to declare swine flu a full-fledged pandemic as the number of cases in Japan soared and a New York teacher died of the virus.
Japan shuttered more than 2,000 schools and kindergartens after it confirmed that swine flu cases had reached 129 with authorities warning the real number of infections from the (A)H1N1 virus could already be in the.hundreds.
Officials in New York, where six schools had already been closed, were reported to have ordered the closure of five more after the death of a 55-year-old assistant principal at a school in the borough of Queens.
Mitchell Wiener was "overwhelmed by the illness despite treatment with an experimental drug," a spokesman for Flushing Hospital Medical Centre where Wiener had
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been treated since Wednesday told the New York Times.
His death brought the toil in the United States to six. While only a fraction of the 66 deaths in Mexico, the United States accounts for more than half of the overall caseload from a virus, which has been reported in 40 countries.
As the WHO began its annual assembly in Geneva, officials within the UN organisation said that 8,829 people have been infected with(A)H!Nl.
The figure is rising rapidly, increasing the likelihood the organisation will raise its pandemic alert level to a maximum level six. It is already at level five, indicating that a pandemic is imminent.
The top level would indicate sustained community transmission in a second region outside the Americas.
WHO Director General Margaret Chan, who would have the power to declare a pandemic after consulting a panel of scientists, said there was pressure to move to the maximum alert level.
"We're all under pressure to make urgent and far-reaching decisions in an atmosphere of considerable scientific uncertainty,” she said at a special debate on A(HiNl).
Chan said there was still a big need for information on the virus that first emerged in Mexico and the United States a month ago.
"We need to warn the public whenever necessary but reassure them whenever possible. This is a difficult balancingact."
Keiji Fukuda, acting assistant director general of the WHO. told AFP the organisation was "looking very carefully at the situation" in Japan.
The rapid rise in infections there has highlighted the difficulties facing authorities as they try to contain the spread of the virus.
Until Friday, Japan thought it had kept the virus at bay, after detecting four people who tested positive when they flew in from North America and immediately quarantining fellow passen-
gers.
The majority of the scores of new cases are concentrated in Kobe and Osaka after two high schools from those areas met for a volleyball tournament, with some players and coaches feeling feverish after the games.
"Considering the situation, it is possible that the infections spread through volleyball games," said Toshizo Ido, the governor of Hyogo prefecture, which includes Kobe city.
"We have to contain this in the region, but it is becoming very difficult."
Residents of Kobe have rushed to hospitals and emergency fever clinics, while pharmacies have quickly run out of face masks.
The WHO has shortened its AGM from 10 days to five to minimise the time officials are away from their countries during the crisis.
Hours of debate are expected to be devoted to influenza and pandemic preparations, a regular topic in recent years after H5N1 bird flu took hold in humans.
The WHO is also holding talks with scientists and vaccine makers about triggering large scale pandemic vaccine production and whether to halt seasonal flu production in order to free up production capacity.
Experts have also expressed concern about the possible mutation of the A(H1N1) virus that could make it more resistant to antiviral drues such as Tamiflu and Relenza. which have been stockpiled by countries to treat severe flu.