Keeping in tune with the bleak tone of its recent statements, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned countries that they should be prepared for more widespread and devastating flu epidemics in the future. The concern is prompted by the fact that, in some parts of South America, Africa and Asia, the swine flu virus H1N1 can combine with local, seasonal strains during the winter months, and can mutate in “unpredictable ways,”
Reuters informs. The warning was issued on Friday by WHO Chief Margaret Chan, who urges countries to take heed and make the necessary preemptive arrangements.
Speaking at the WHO's annual congress, the high-ranking official said that the highly contagious strain needed close and constant monitoring, so that health experts could discover future variants of the virus as early on as possible and quarantine the area. The move is necessary so that the infection does not spread in the way that it did when it first appeared in Mexico. At this point, confirmed cases exist in more than 40 countries, which only further goes to show exactly how dangerous fast communication and airports can be in disseminating pathogens across the globe in extremely short amounts of time.
Basically, a strain can now travel from one point to another on the globe in less than 48 hours, which is tremendously faster than in ancient days, when a pandemic took decades to spread a few thousand miles. For instance, when the Black Plague struck Europe, it did not spread to Asia, Africa, or the Middle East, on account of the fact that traveling routes between the continents were scarce and little traveled. Now, the virus reached from South America to Japan and Europe in less than a week.
“In cases where the H1N1 virus is widespread and circulating within the general community, countries must expect to see more cases of severe and fatal infections. We do not at present expect this to be a sudden and dramatic jump in severe illness and deaths. This is a subtle, sneaky virus. We have clues, many clues, but very few firm conclusions,” Chan said at the meeting. According to the latest figures released by the organization, the swine influenza virus currently affects more than 11,000 people, and has already killed 86. The good news is that most of those infected outside the original area in Mexico only experience mild symptoms and can be treated.
“The decision to declare an influenza pandemic is a responsibility and a duty that I take very, very seriously. I will consider all the scientific information available. I will be advised by the emergency committee,” Margaret Chan added, addressing speculations that the WHO might raise the outbreak's classification from 5 to 6 and declare it a global pandemic.
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