Swine Flu Set To Be Declared A Pandemic

[efq]

I know schools near me that have recently given out letters about Swine Flu and will likely shut if declared a pandemic as a pre-caution. They have homework prepared on the school website in the case that the school closes...

The World Health Organisation is meeting today to look at declaring a swine flu pandemic after an explosion of cases across the globe.


Pupils wear protective masks at a school in Mexico


The virus first emerged in Mexico in April and has now spread to 74 countries with a reported 27,000 cases and 141 deaths.
The world is currently in phase five of the pandemic alert scale, and moving to six would trigger a large scale production of vaccines.
It would also raise questions about why the step was delayed for weeks as the virus continued to spread.
WHO chief Dr Margaret Chan yesterday quizzed eight countries with large swine flu outbreaks to see if a pandemic, or global epidemic, should be declared.
She has now announced that an emergency meeting with WHO's flu experts will be held today.

Flu prompts pig cull in Egypt

Dr Chan says she believes a pandemic is already underway, but was seeking clear proof that swine flu is spreading rapidly from person to person outside the Americas.
"Once I get indisputable evidence I will make the announcement," she told reporters.
The last flu pandemic was the Hong Kong case in 1968.
GlaxoSmithKline said it was already working with a key ingredient of the swine flu vaccine to see how quickly doses could be produced.
Other major pharmaceuticals like Sanofi Pasteur have also been working on a swine flu vaccine after WHO gave them a "seed stock" of the virus last month created by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Drug giants said it could take up to six months before large amounts of a swine flu vaccine are available.
At the moment, GlaxoSmithKline is still making regular flu vaccine, which it expects to be completed by July.
According to WHO's own pandemic criteria, a global outbreak means a new flu virus is spreading in at least two world regions.
With thousands of cases in North America and hundreds in Japan, Australia and Europe, many experts say that threshold has already been reached.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wor...h_Organisation

[Robbie]

I lost interest in Swine Flu ages ago, idk anymore. It's just the media overhyping everything as usual.

[lick]

Yeah, theres nothing to worry about then can cure it now lol

also GlaxoSmithKline dont they make toothpaste ad lukozode lol

[Immenseman]

I don't hear anything about it. I didn't even know it was still going to be honest.

[Jordan,]

i really dont care about it you hardly hear about it any more

[Plank]

The swine flu is so mild I don't care about it. A school which has a case of swine flu didn't even close, they just asked people who had symptoms to stay off, and for people to be more hygienic. It can't be that bad.

[le harry]

Australia is pretty much covered with it lol.

[cocaine]

oh get out, that was so last month

[GommeInc]

Claiming it as a pandemic would a complete waste of time, money and resources. I demand normal Flu, the common cold and cyber aids as pandemics, at least they've earned it! They've not been hyped by some W.H.O. who should have most of their members step down for wasting the world with their horror stories of death to everyone and mis-calculating the amount killed by it in Mexico (yes, Mexico did the numbers, but the W.H.O. should finalize them). Jeez.

[Technologic]

And the level has just been raised to 6.