WHO mulls flu alert level as Japan cases rise
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 19, 2009 10:42
KOBE, Japan - While the number of patients who contract swine flu is rising at an alarming rate around the world particularly with the recent disturbing cases of the virus in Japan, health experts discuss enthusiastically as to whether declare an official pandemic at the annual meeting of World Health Organization. The world should stay vigilant against virus, warns an expert
The number of swine flu cases soared in Japan yesterday and a New York teacher died of the virus, increasing the prospects of world health chiefs declaring an official pandemic at their annual meeting. Japan shuttered more than 2,000 schools after it confirmed that swine flu cases had reached 135 with authorities warning that the real number of infections from H1N1 could already be in the hundreds. None of the 135 patients were in serious condition, a health ministry official said.
Officials in NY, where six schools had already been closed, were reported to have ordered the closure of five more after the death of a 55-year-old assistant principal at a school in the borough of Queens. Mitchell Wiener was "overwhelmed by the illness despite treatment with an experimental drug," a spokesman for Flushing Hospital Medical Center where Wiener had been treated since Wednesday told the New York Times.
His death brought the toll in the United States to six. While only a fraction of the 68 deaths in Mexico, the U.S. accounts for more than half of the overall caseload from a virus, which has been reported in 40 countries.
According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, or WHO, 8,829 people have been infected with H1N1. Until Friday, Japan thought it had kept the virus at bay, after detecting four people who tested positive when they flew in from North America and immediately quarantining fellow passengers. The majority of the scores of new cases are concentrated in Kobe and Osaka after two high schools from the areas met for a volleyball tournament, with some players and coaches feeling feverish after the games. Residents of Kobe have rushed to hospitals and emergency fever clinics, while pharmacies have quickly run out of face masks.
Officials admitted the new figures were disturbing. "We need to confine the outbreak locally, but we must admit it is getting difficult," said Hyogo Gov. Toshizo Ido. In Tokyo, PM Taro Aso called a Cabinet meeting to coordinate the government's response. "We must be careful, but with quick treatment patients can recover," he said. "We must respond calmly and appropriately."
Debate over decision-making
Meanwhile, Britain, Japan and other nations urged the WHO yesterday to change the way it decides to declare a pandemic, saying the agency must consider how deadly the virus is, not just how fast it is spreading., according to a report by The Associated Press.
The debate arose as WHO began its annual meeting, a five-day event attended by hundreds of health experts from 193 member nations. "We need to give you and your team more flexibility as to whether we move to phase 6," The Associated Press quoted British Health Secretary Alan Johnson as saying. Japan also called for changes in WHO's system, which would move to pandemic if the virus starts to be transmitted among people outside schools, hospitals and other institutions where viruses typically pass quickly.
"This is the new influenza virus of the human race," declared Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO flu chief. "It is able to cause outbreaks in institutions, in cities. It is able to spread regionally." Fukuda told Agence France-Presse the WHO was "looking very carefully at the situation" in Japan. WHO says transmission rates in countries outside the Americas is the key factor in whether the agency should raise its pandemic alert scale to the highest level. Right now it is at phase 5 - out of a possible 6 - meaning a global outbreak is "imminent."
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the WHO meeting that the outbreak is "not winding down" in the U.S. and "widespread transmission" continues. Speaking a day after flu-related death in New York, Besser said the world needed to maintain vigilance against the virus.
Officials in NY, where six schools had already been closed, were reported to have ordered the closure of five more after the death of a 55-year-old assistant principal at a school in the borough of Queens. Mitchell Wiener was "overwhelmed by the illness despite treatment with an experimental drug," a spokesman for Flushing Hospital Medical Center where Wiener had been treated since Wednesday told the New York Times.
His death brought the toll in the United States to six. While only a fraction of the 68 deaths in Mexico, the U.S. accounts for more than half of the overall caseload from a virus, which has been reported in 40 countries.
According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, or WHO, 8,829 people have been infected with H1N1. Until Friday, Japan thought it had kept the virus at bay, after detecting four people who tested positive when they flew in from North America and immediately quarantining fellow passengers. The majority of the scores of new cases are concentrated in Kobe and Osaka after two high schools from the areas met for a volleyball tournament, with some players and coaches feeling feverish after the games. Residents of Kobe have rushed to hospitals and emergency fever clinics, while pharmacies have quickly run out of face masks.
Officials admitted the new figures were disturbing. "We need to confine the outbreak locally, but we must admit it is getting difficult," said Hyogo Gov. Toshizo Ido. In Tokyo, PM Taro Aso called a Cabinet meeting to coordinate the government's response. "We must be careful, but with quick treatment patients can recover," he said. "We must respond calmly and appropriately."
Debate over decision-making
Meanwhile, Britain, Japan and other nations urged the WHO yesterday to change the way it decides to declare a pandemic, saying the agency must consider how deadly the virus is, not just how fast it is spreading., according to a report by The Associated Press.
The debate arose as WHO began its annual meeting, a five-day event attended by hundreds of health experts from 193 member nations. "We need to give you and your team more flexibility as to whether we move to phase 6," The Associated Press quoted British Health Secretary Alan Johnson as saying. Japan also called for changes in WHO's system, which would move to pandemic if the virus starts to be transmitted among people outside schools, hospitals and other institutions where viruses typically pass quickly.
"This is the new influenza virus of the human race," declared Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO flu chief. "It is able to cause outbreaks in institutions, in cities. It is able to spread regionally." Fukuda told Agence France-Presse the WHO was "looking very carefully at the situation" in Japan. WHO says transmission rates in countries outside the Americas is the key factor in whether the agency should raise its pandemic alert scale to the highest level. Right now it is at phase 5 - out of a possible 6 - meaning a global outbreak is "imminent."
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the WHO meeting that the outbreak is "not winding down" in the U.S. and "widespread transmission" continues. Speaking a day after flu-related death in New York, Besser said the world needed to maintain vigilance against the virus.