W.H.O. May Raise Alert Level as Swine Flu Cases Leap in Japan

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

TOKYO — Japan rushed to contain a widening outbreak of swine flu on Monday, as school closures and quarantine measures failed to prevent fresh cases in what appears to have become the worst-hit country of the flu epidemic outside North America.

Cases of the H1N1 strain of influenza reached 135 after the government confirmed almost 74 new infections, including in a 5-year-old boy and a man in his 60s, the Health Ministry said late Monday.

The new cases came even as the authorities ordered more than 1,000 schools to close in and around Kobe and Osaka, cities in western Japan where the outbreak has been centered. None of the cases has been life-threatening, and there have been no deaths, according to the Health Ministry.

The bulk of the infections have been found among high school students in the region who have no record of recent overseas travel, signaling the start of a wider outbreak.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/world/asia/19flu.html?ref=global-home

[Mojorabbit]

1. After considerable lobbying

from many countries they did not raise it as of today. Raising it to 6 even though with Japan it should be raised, countries are worried about the economic hardship it would entail when they roll out their pandemic plans.

[uppityperson]

2. I've been posting daily numbers from WHO on this DU topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3872174&mesg_id=3873161

In case anyone else is interested, been posting them for the last wk or so.

[uppityperson]

3. Headline is different from what you post "Japan Acts to Contain Flu, but W.H.O. Resists Raising the

"Japan Acts to Contain Flu, but W.H.O. Resists Raising the Alert Level "
Story has changed also...

TOKYO — Japan rushed to contain a widening outbreak of swine flu on Monday as global health ministers met in Geneva to discuss vaccine preparations and other preventative measures against the new flu strain.

Japanese cases of the H1N1 strain of influenza reached 135 after the government confirmed 74 new infections, including in a 5-year-old boy and a man his 60s, the Health Ministry said late Monday.

At the annual meeting in Geneva of the World Health Assembly, pandemic preparedness was placed at the top of the agenda. The World Health Organization’s director-general, Margaret Chan, announced the organization was not yet prepared to raise the global pandemic flu alert level to 6, its highest level.

Britain, Japan and other nations urged the organization on the meeting’s opening day 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. There has been concern that by raising the global alert level to 5 on April 29, the United Nations health agency had unduly raised alarm.