Medical experts will decide in a matter of weeks if the climax of the H1N1 flu pandemic is over, but it’s already clear that it poses less of a threat than previous outbreaks of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.
The WHO’s urgency committee deemed it premature on Tuesday to declare that the pandemic announced last June – the first of its kind in more than 40 years – is past its worst phase.
The 15-member committee providing confidential recommendations to WHO’s Director General Dr. Margaret Chan sat for two hours but felt there was too much confusion about how the pandemic is evolving – even if it seems to be regressing in North America and Europe.
Leading WHO flu expert Dr. Keiji Fukuda told reporters on Wednesday that the committee was primarily concerned about the rise in the number of cases in West Africa and the risks posed by astronomical winter looming over the southern hemisphere.
We have some reason to be concerned about what will happen when half the world enters the winter months, Fukuda pointed out. He added that the WHO has confirmed reports of an increase in the number of swine flu cases in Senegal and Mauritania and is checking that the virus is not spreading to other West African countries.
This pandemic appears to be on the less serious side of the spectrum of the pandemic we saw in the XNUMXth century, he stressed.
So far, WHO has confirmed over 16. swine flu-related deaths. However, it is believed that the actual death toll, which will take one to two years to determine, will be much higher.
According to Fukuda, more than 1 million people have been vaccinated against the H1N300 virus so far, and the vaccine is 70 to 75 percent effective. cases. (PAP)