Global Flu Pandemic: Ban urges countries to "be prepared"

United Nations, New York, 11 June 2009 - The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has used his monthly press conference to caution the world against undue alarm while stressing the need for preparedness, as the United Nations health agency announced that the world is experiencing an influenza pandemic caused by the new A(H1N1) virus.

Mr Ban's comments came just an hour after the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) announced the agency has elevated its alert from phase 5 to phase 6, indicating a global pandemic outbreak.

The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told reporters in Geneva. As of today, nearly 30,000 confirmed cases have been reported in 74 countries.

Despite the bleak prognosis for the spread of the virus, Mr Ban told reporters at the United Nations Headquarters in New York that the alert level is a formal statement about the geographic spread of disease and not in itself a cause for alarm.

View Dr. Margaret Chan's (Director-General, WHO) full statement on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Nfk0zcTAk

News Story:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31104&Cr=h1n1&Cr1=

World Health Organisation Web site:
http://who.org/

Category:

News & Politics

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• A(H1N1)

[MadCanada597]

Swine flu, first extracted from pigs in 1930, didnt have an outbreak until 1976 at Fort Dix.

24% of the population is vaccinated.

Now, 1 in 150 child births, will be affected by autism.

Thimerosal - A preservative containing mercury, and formaldehyde are both found in the swine flu shot.