H1N1 Influenza Cases Increase

United Nations, New York, 29 April 2009 - Daily Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General. The World Health Organization (WHO) just wrapped up a telephone press conference on the H1N1 Influenza (swine flu). The agency confirmed that there has been an increase in lab-confirmed cases from 79 yesterday to 114 today. The infections have been reported in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Israel, Spain, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
WHO also noted that the virus is spreading, with no evidence of slowing down.
Regarding its influenza pandemic alert level, which was raised to phase 4 on Monday, WHO said that we are moving closer to phase 5 but are not there yet. Before raising the alert level again, WHO said it would need to make sure that it was dealing with sustained human to human transmission, with widespread community outbreaks, in at least two regions.
Noting that the virus did originate in pigs, WHO stressed that there is no evidence that people are now getting sick from pigs or pork products. The agency also noted that many countries have increased surveillance activities, as it recommended a few days ago.
WHO emphasized that experts are continuing to study the situation and that there are still unanswered questions. For example, it is currently unclear whether people, upon becoming infected, will develop mild or severe illness.

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• United Nations
• UN Secretary-General
• Ban Ki-moon
• WHO
• swine flu
• H1N1 Influenza