WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

[SuperNova1987A]

The WHO’s emergency committee of experts will meet on Monday to decide whether to raise the level of the UN agency’s pandemic alert, a WHO spokeswoman
Source: http://www.livemint.com/2009/04/27175436/WHO-brings-forward-emergency-s.html

Geneva: The World Health Organisation’s emergency committee of experts will meet on Monday at around 1400 GMT to decide whether to raise the level of the UN agency’s pandemic alert, a WHO spokeswoman said on Monday.
The committee had previously been scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
The WHO will hold a teleconference for media later this evening following the meeting with director general Margaret Chan or acting assistant director-general Keiji Fukuda if the committee recommends an increase in the pandemic alert level.
The current phase of pandemic alert is 3 on a scale of 1 to 6. The committee is meeting in the light of confirmed outbreaks of swine flu in Mexico, where it has killed 103 people, the United States and Canada.
Earlier on Monday health authorities in Spain confirmed one case of the disease and said 17 other people were under investigation, indicating swine flu was present on both sides of the Atlantic.
Infections are also suspected in Britain, France and Israel.
“If we go to phase 4 because of the swine flu virus, it basically means that we believe that a potential pandemic virus has potentially shown it can transmit from person to person and cause large outbreaks,” Fukuda said on Sunday.
“This is a pretty big change from phase 3 to phase 4.”

__________________________
SN1987A

 

[flutrackers@cool.fr.nf]

Re: WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

It will be pretty interesting to see what they do. If they do not raise to phase 4 it could show that reports that the virus may be slowing down is correct. If they do raise it to phase 4 it would show they believe it is more serious than we think now.

 

[gsgs]

Re: WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

they could go to 3.9 or such

that's almost 4 but leaves countries like Australia
more room with travel restrictions.

 

[Niko]

Re: WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLR59600420090427

UPDATE 1-WHO may raise pandemic threat level over swine flu

Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:23pm EDT

* WHO may raise pandemic alert level to phase 4 or 5

* Bringing meeting forward underlines urgency

* U.S. CDC growing vaccine strain

(Adds quotes, details, background)

GENEVA, April 27 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation could raise its pandemic alert level to phase 4 or even two notches to phase 5 as a deadly swine flu outbreak spreads from continent to continent, a WHO spokesman said on Monday.

Gregory Hartl, speaking on a media teleconference as an emergency committee of experts met to review the pandemic alert level, also said work to produce a vaccine against the virus had begun.

Going to phase 4 on the WHO's 6-point scale would mean the WHO believes that a potential pandemic virus has shown it could transmit easily from person to person, according to the United Nations agency.

Moving it directly to phase 5 would indicate that the disease was already spreading significantly among humans.

Hartl noted that the disease, confirmed in Mexico, the Untied States, Canada and Spain, had gone beyond one single location, enough to raise the alert beyond phase 4.

But more information was needed to see how the disease was spreading, for instance whether cases in other countries had been imported from Mexico, he said.

"I think there will be judgments made because of that whether phase 4 or 5 is appropriate," Hartl said.

It was possible the committee, whose meeting was brought forward from Tuesday, would decide it was too soon to raise the level from phase 3, where it was set in 2005 when the WHO introduced the system to monitor bird flu, he said. The pandemic alert level has never before been raised.

"The fact that we have called this meeting a day early would certainly seem to indicate that this is an event and an evolving situation that needs to be addressed urgently," he said.
Hartl said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had taken a sample of the H1N1 virus causing the disease, produced a vaccine virus strain and was now growing it in eggs, the first stage in a vaccine production process.

"We certainly know that the work has begun to produce a vaccine," Hartl said, adding that it would typically be 5-6 months from this initial development before a vaccine was ready for use on shop shelves.

(For a FACTBOX on the WHO pandemic alert phases, click on: ID:nLP283081] (For more stories on swine flu, click on [nFLU]) (For more Reuters swine flu coverage, please click here: here (For WHO information on swine flu, go to: here ) (Reporting by Jonathan Lynn and Michael Kahn)

 

[Niko]

Re: WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

EDIT: Date has been corrected on WHO site.

Although the date says "25 April 2009", it is today's briefing.
Swine influenza virtual press briefings

Audio files and transcripts from the briefings

27 April 2009 press briefing

Listen to the audio of the 25 April 2009 press briefing [mp3 26.3 Mb]
With Gregory Härtl, Project Leader, Information Management & Communications, Health Security and Environment

 

[prepdeb]

Re: WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

Tough call for WHO. The predictable response to them raising the alert level will impact many companies.

 

[scottmcpherson]

Re: WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

I heard 4 or 5 late last week -- from someone VERY plugged in to that whole thing.

 

[Diane Morin]

Re: WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

Phase 4 ?

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101091

 

[Science Teacher]

Re: WHO brings forward emergency swine flu meeting

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJA9e.tpZkJw&refer=home

Swine Flu Border Closures are Political, WHO Says (Update1)


By Tom Randall

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Travel restrictions under consideration by the U.S. to prevent the spread of a new flu virus may be influenced by politics more than science, the World Health Organization?s chief said today.

WHO doesn?t recommend closing borders or restricting the movement of people or goods, Margaret Chan, director-general of the United Nations agency told leaders from health groups around the world in a conference call today. The disease, which may have caused more than 100 deaths and sickened more than 1,000 people, has spread too far and would be impossible to contain by closing borders, she said.

The European Union Health Commissioner advised travelers to avoid areas affected by the outbreak, and the U.S. may change travel recommendations today, said Anne Schuchat, the director of immunization and respiratory disease at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an interview today. The malady has been confirmed in 40 patients in the U.S. and 8 in Canada with no deaths reported in those countries, Chan said.

?By definition, pandemic influenza will move around the world,? Chan said in the call today. ?Does that mean we are going to close every country? Does that mean we are going to bring the world?s economy to a standstill?

?We know from past experience that transmission of influenza or the spread of new influenza disease would not be stopped by closing borders and would not be stopped by restricting movement of people or goods,? Chan said.