WHO Renews Warning as Virus Spreads

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday cautioned the world again on the threat of a possible influenza pandemic as the new A/H1N1 flu virus continues to spread in more and more countries.

"The new H1N1 virus spreads very easily from person to person, spreads rapidly within a country once it establishes itself, and is spreading rapidly to new countries. We expect this pattern to continue," Dr. Margaret Chan told the 62nd World Health Assembly (WHA).

The emergence of the new virus creates great pressure on governments, ministries of health, and the WHO to make the right decisions and take the right actions at a time of great scientific uncertainty, she said.

Chan recognized that the H1N1 virus "presently causes mainly mild illness, with few deaths, outside the outbreak in Mexico."

But she warned that the behavior of influenza viruses is notoriously unpredictable, and the behavior of pandemics is as unpredictable as the viruses that cause them.

"This virus may have given us a grace period, but we do not know how long this grace period will last. No one can say whether this is just the calm before the storm," she said.

She noted that the presence of the new virus has now been confirmed in several countries in the southern hemisphere, where epidemics of seasonal influenza will soon be picking up.

"We have every reason to be concerned about interactions of the new H1N1 virus with other viruses that are currently circulating in humans," she said.

Moreover, no one can say how the H5N1 avian influenza virus, which is now firmly established in poultry in several countries, will behave when pressured by large numbers of people infected with the new H1N1 virus, she added.

The WHA is the supreme decision-making body of the WHO. It is usually held in Geneva in May and participated by health ministers of member states.

This year's assembly was expected to run through May 22, five days shorter than originally planned because health ministers are busy handling the disease situation in their own countries and need to go back earlier.

According to the WHO's latest tally, the new flu virus has caused 8,829 infections and 74 deaths in 40 countries and regions.

The largest numbers of cases continued to be reported from three North American countries, namely Mexico, where the new virus was first identified, the United States and Canada. Most of the deaths occurred in Mexico.

So far there is still no strong evidence showing community-level transmission of the virus in regions outside of North America, according to the WHO. But the UN agency is closely monitoring the spread of the virus among people, particularly in Spain, Britain and recently Japan, where cases have kept increasing.

Once community-level transmission of the virus is confirmed outside of North America, the WHO is expected to raise its pandemic alert level from the current phase 5 to phase 6, which indicates a pandemic is under way.

According to the WHO director-general, a defining characteristic of a pandemic is the almost universal susceptibility of the world's population to infection. Not all people become infected, but nearly all are at risk.

But she pointed out that the manufacturing capacity for antiviral drugs and influenza vaccines is finite and insufficient for a world with 6.8 billion inhabitants.

Thus countries will likely be advised to target their disease-control efforts and resources to high-risk groups, especially those people with underlying health conditions who tend to develop severe illnesses and even die from the new virus.

She said pregnant women may also face heightened risk of complications, and the international community will be alerted immediately when such information is confirmed by WHO scientists.

She also stressed the importance for poor countries to gain equal access to vaccines and antiviral drugs.

"I strongly urge the international community to use this grace period wisely. I strongly urge you to look closely at anything and everything we can do, collectively, to protect developing countries from, once again, bearing the brunt of a global contagion," she said.

"As I said, equity in health matters in life-and-death ways. It matters most especially in times of crisis," she added.

She also called for global solidarity in dealing with the pandemic threat. "An influenza pandemic is an extreme expression of the need for global solidarity. We are all in this together. And we will all get through this, together," she said.

(Source: xinhua)