May—There is still no evidence of community-level spread of the new flu H1N1 virus outside North America, Keiji Fukuda, WHO acting assistant director-general, told reporters. “We continue to see a number of infections related to travel in a number of different countries ... and a little bit of movement of the virus going south. “We do not have any evidence that the virus has taken hold and has led to community-level transmissions in any other country right now (outside North America). “It is not that surveillance has to be strong just in the southern hemisphere. It
has to be strong everywhere. Right now we really just don’t know how this will go,” Fukuda said.
There have been 1,025 laboratory cases, including 26 deaths, and the cases have been seen in 20 countries, he said. Fukuda said the WHO had concerns about the infection travelling to the
southern hemisphere because winter is setting in when flu viruses typically thrive. He said the spectrum of illness was from very mild cases to cases which end in fatalities. The WHO rates the flu
outbreak as Phase 5 on a six-phase scale.
has to be strong everywhere. Right now we really just don’t know how this will go,” Fukuda said.
There have been 1,025 laboratory cases, including 26 deaths, and the cases have been seen in 20 countries, he said. Fukuda said the WHO had concerns about the infection travelling to the
southern hemisphere because winter is setting in when flu viruses typically thrive. He said the spectrum of illness was from very mild cases to cases which end in fatalities. The WHO rates the flu
outbreak as Phase 5 on a six-phase scale.
No comments:
Post a Comment