WHO declares first 21st century flu pandemic

GENEVA, (Reuters) – The World Health Organization  declared an influenza pandemic yesterday and advised  governments to prepare for a long-term battle against an  unstoppable new flu virus.
  
The United Nations agency raised its pandemic flu alert to  phase 6 on a six-point scale, indicating the first influenza  pandemic since 1968 is under way.
  
“With today’s announcement, WHO moves from an emergency to  a longer-term response. Based on past experience, this pandemic  will be with us for some months, if not years, to come,” WHO  Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said in a letter to staff, a  copy of which was obtained by Reuters. 

People aged 30-50, pregnant women or people suffering from  chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes or obesity are at  highest risk, Chan told a news conference.
  
Countries from Australia to Chile and the United States are  reporting the new swine flu virus is “crowding out” seasonal  flu, becoming the predominant influenza strain, she said.
  
For now the virus was “pretty stable,” but Chan warned that  it could still change into a more deadly form, perhaps mixing  with the H5N1 bird flu virus circulating widely in poultry.  
“So it is incumbent on WHO and all members to stay vigilant  and alert for the next year or two or even beyond,” she said.  

There is also a risk the swine flu could mix with its  seasonal H1N1 cousin, which has developed resistance to the  main antiviral flu drug Tamiflu, made by Roche AG and Gilead  Sciences Inc, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease  Control and Prevention told a separate briefing.
  
The United States has been operating on pandemic status for  weeks, with hundreds of thousands of cases and at least 1,000  hospitalizations, Schuchat said.  

The virus disproportionately makes younger people sick.  Some 57 percent of U.S. cases were among people aged 5 to 24,  and 41 percent of those hospitalized were in this younger age  group. 
 
H1N1 is active in all 50 states and there are so many cases  now that in some areas, patients with specific flu-like  symptoms — a fever above 104 degrees F (40 degrees C), cough  or other respiratory symptoms — are presumed to have the new  virus.
  
WHO reiterated its advice to its 193 member countries not  to close borders or impose travel restrictions to halt the  movement of people, goods and services, a call echoed by U.N.  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. 

“We must guard against rash and discriminatory actions such  as travel bans or trade restrictions,” Ban told a news  conference at U.N. headquarters.  

The move to phase 6 reflects the fact that the disease,  widely known as swine flu, is spreading geographically, but  does not indicate how virulent it is.  

Widespread transmission of the virus in Australia,  signaling that it is entrenched in another region besides North  America, was one of the key triggers for moving to phase 6.
  
“We are satisfied that this virus is spreading to a number  of countries and it is not stoppable,” Chan said.
  
“Moving to pandemic phase 6 level does not imply we will  see an increase in the number of deaths or very severe cases.  Quite on the contrary. Many people are having mild disease,  they recover without medicines in some cases and it is good  news,” she said.  

“Although the pandemic appears to have moderate severity in  comparatively well-off countries, it is prudent to anticipate a  bleaker picture as the virus spreads to areas with limited  resources, poor health care, and a high prevalence of  underlying medical problems,” she added.
  
Canadian health officials said they were concerned about  reports of more severe symptoms in some aboriginal communities,  but said it was too soon to say for sure.
  
“To make conclusions based on a couple of communities that  this is somehow a disease that is worse in a particular ethnic  group. It’s much too early to make any of those kinds of  conclusions or presumptions,” said Dr. David Butler-Jones,  Canada’s chief public health officer.