Pandemic alert

[Guest guest]

So here it comes, the next big fraud so big pharma and pocket another few billion.

Report: WHO to Declare Level 6 Flu Pandemic

Monday , May 04, 2009

The World Health Organization is likely to raise its alert for the H1N1

swine flu outbreak to the highest level and declare a pandemic, its director

indicated in an interview published on Monday.

" Level six does not mean, in any way, that we are facing the end of the

world. It is important to make this clear because (otherwise) when we announce

level six it will cause an unnecessary panic, " Reuters reported WHO General Margaret Chan told Spanish newspaper El Pais.

" Flu viruses are very unpredictable, very deceptive... We should not be

overconfident. One must not give H1N1 the opportunity to mix with other

viruses. That is why we are on alert, " she reportedly told the newspaper.

Chan warned against over-confidence following a stabilization in the number

of new cases of H1N1 because the southern hemisphere was about to enter winter,

when flu cases naturally spike.

" We have to be very careful. No one can predict what is going to happen

when countries in the south have flu peaks and this new one arrives — which it

is going to do, without a doubt. "

" It is true that the number (of cases in people who have not been to

Mexico) is small but because of that I would say that we have not seen the full

situation or the whole picture of what is happening. The situation is evolving

and the virus is changing " .

She said it was too early to predict what proportion of the population would

catch the new influenza strain after the European Union predicted 40 percent of

the population would become infected.

Meanwhile, Mexico decides today whether to reopen businesses and schools or

extend a shutdown that has helped choke off the spread of swine flu but caused

untold economic harm. The virus continued to spread around the world, with new

cases in Europe and North and South America.

President Felipe Calderon said a nationwide shutdown and an aggressive

informational campaign appeared to have helped curtail the outbreak in Mexico.

His health secretary said the government is starting preparations for the

return to classes and work, and plans to give safety recommendations to

businesses and disinfect schools on Monday.

" We have succeeded in detaining or at least slowing the spread of the

virus precisely because the measures have been the correct ones, " Calderon

said in an interview with state television broadcast Sunday night.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said the virus had killed at least 22

people in Mexico, raising the toll from 19, adding that the last confirmed

death occurred April 29. He said the virus had sickened at least 568 people and

apparently peaked in Mexico between April 23 and April 28.

While Mexico began its first tentative steps toward a return to normalcay,

the virus spread to Colombia in the first confirmed case in South America,

worrisome because flu season is about to begin in the Southern Hemisphere. More

cases were confirmed in North America and Europe, with the total number

sickened worldwide rising to at least 1,001 people, according to health and

government officials.

Health officials raised the number of confirmed U.S. swine flu cases to 245

in 35 states late Sunday. The new number, up from 160 on Saturday, reflects

streamlining in federal procedures and the results of tests by states, which

have only recently begun confirming cases, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Officials in New Mexico announced that 14 schools in four towns were being

closed for at least a week after the state's first swine flu case was confirmed,

and the New Mexico Activities Association suspended all athletic and activity

programs until further notice at member schools across the state. California

officials suspended all visitations at prisons pending results of tests on an

ill inmate at Centinela State Prison.

In Alberta, Canada, officials quarantined about 220 pigs that became

infected from a worker who had recently returned from Mexico. It was the first

documented case of the H1N1 virus being passed from a human to another species.

Canada stressed that pigs often get the flu and there is no danger in eating

pork.

In Trinidad, crew aboard a Mexican tanker had been isolated since Friday at

the Point Lisas Port. The Ministry of Health said Sunday that they were tested

and cleared of any flu infection and that the vessel was expected to be

released.

Hong Kong isolated 350 people in a hotel after a Mexican traveler there was

determined to have swine flu.

China quarantined more than 70 Mexican travelers in hospitals and hotels

there, and Mexicans on arriving flights were being taken into isolation, said

Mexico's ambassador, Jorge Guajardo. Even the Mexican consul in Guangzhou was

briefly held after returning from a vacation in Cambodia, Guajardo said.

Calderon complained of the backlash against Mexicans abroad.

" I think it's unfair that because we have been honest and transparent

with the world some countries and places are taking repressive and

discriminatory measures because of ignorance and disinformation, " Calderon

said. " There are always people who are seizing on this pretext to assault

Mexicans, even just verbally. "

The president did not single out any country. But the Foreign Relations

Department said afterward that Mexico was sending a chartered jetliner Monday

to bring back any citizens who wanted to leave China. A statement said the

plane would go to several Chinese cities " where Mexicans have expressed

their intention to return to Mexico. "

China's Foreign Ministry denied it was discriminating against Mexicans.

The CDC's acting chief, Dr. Richard Besser, said swine flu is spreading just

as easily as regular winter flu.

" The good news is when we look at this virus right now, we're not

seeing some of the things in the virus that have been associated in the past

with more severe flu, " Besser said. " That's encouraging, but it

doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet. "