SWITZERLAND/FILE: World Health Organisation (WHO) may declare 'global pandemic' of H1N1 flu

Record ID: 722167

  • Title: SWITZERLAND/FILE: World Health Organisation (WHO) may declare 'global pandemic' of H1N1 flu
  • Date: 12th June 2009
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JUNE 11, 2009) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO) HEADQUARTERS WHO FLAG FLYING WHO SPOKESMAN GREGORY HARTL ARRIVING (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHO SPOKESMAN GREGORY HARTL SAYING: "So we have convened an emergency meeting today starting at noon (1000 GMT), which brings together some of the world's foremost influenza experts plus representatives from eight most affected countries. We are examining the worldwide spread of this virus and based on the evidence from this virus, Doctor Chan may or may not make a recommendation to go to phase six." HARTL WITH JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHO SPOKESMAN GREGORY HARTL SAYING: "Phase six, if we call phase six, doesn't mean anything concerning severity, it's concerning geographic spread. So we have to differentiate between the two. Pandemic means global but it doesn't have any connotation of severity or mildness."
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA6QHUUSHAGMSZ09XQY6B71GDRO
  • Story Text: The World Health Organisation (WHO)'s Director General Margaret Chan will hold an emergency experts meeting on Thursday (11 June), to decide whether or not to declare a global pandemic of H1N1 flu, which would be the first influenza pandemic in the past 40 years.
    Chan will discuss the worldwide spread of the H1N1 flu outbreak with experts, who are expected to advise here to move to phase six - the highest level of the WHO's pandemic alert scale. She will make a decision based on the epidemiological data gathered during the meeting.
    "We have convened an emergency meeting today starting at noon (1000GMT), which brings together some of the world's foremost influenza experts plus representatives from eight most affected countries. We are examining the worldwide spread of this virus and based on the evidence from this virus, Doctor Chan may or may not make a recommendation to go to phase six," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters Television before the meeting.
    Chan, a former health director in Hong Kong, has already consulted health officials in affected countries in an effort to make her own evaluation before the meeting begins.
    The move would prompt heightened health measures in the WHO's 193 member states as authorities brace for the worldwide spread of the virus that has so far caused mainly mild illness.
    That would reflect the fact that the disease is spreading geographically, but not necessarily indicate how virulent it is.
    "Phase six, if we call phase six, doesn't mean anything concerning severity, it's concerning geographic spread. So we have to differentiate between the two. Pandemic means global but it doesn't have any connotation of severity or mildness", Hartl said, insisting the pandemic alert scale did not describe the severity of the virus.
    Widespread transmission of the virus in Victoria, Australia, signalling that it is entrenched in another region besides North America, is likely to be the trigger for moving to phase 6.
    Five people have been admitted to intensive care in Australia and over 1,000 cases confirmed following widespread testing in the state.
    The strain, which emerged in April in Mexico and the United States, has spread widely in places including Australia, Britain, Chile and Japan.
    There have been 27,737 infections reported in 74 countries to date, including 141 deaths, according to the WHO's latest tally of laboratory confirmed cases, but the real number of people with the disease is likely to run into at least hundreds of thousands, as mild cases may not have been detected.
    Drugmakers have obtained the new influenza A (H1N1) seed virus in the past two weeks, enabling them to begin the production process by growing the virus in eggs.
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