Swine flu set to dominate WHO conference

HEALTH experts are looking very closely at the spread of swine flu among people in Spain, Britain and Japan, a World Health Organisation official said yesterday, as Japan confirmed dozens of new cases among teenagers and shut down affected schools.

The swine flu epidemic is expected to dominate the WHO’s annual meeting, a five-day event that begins in Geneva today and involves health officials from the agency’s 193 member states.

WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan is expected to reveal experts’ recommendations on the production of a swine flu vaccine sometime at the meeting. Pharmaceutical companies are ready to begin making such a vaccine, but many decisions have to be made first – such as how much vaccine should be produced, how it will be distributed and who should get it.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon will visit WHO tomorrow and meet with senior representatives from the vaccine industry, but the UN declined to say which companies.

As of yesterday, the swine flu virus has sickened at least 8,480 people. It has killed 75 people, most of them in Mexico.

Most people infected so far have suffered from a mild disease but experts fear the virus might mutate into a deadlier form.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in-country transmission rates were a key factor in whether the global body decides to increase its pandemic alert level. Right now, the world is at phase 5 – out of a possible 6 – meaning that a global outbreak is “imminent”.

“We already know about Britain and Spain, that they have a relatively high number of cases compared to other European countries, so by simple virtue of the fact that they have more cases they need to be kept an eye on,” Hartl said in a television interview.

“There seems to have been activity in the last few days in Japan so we need to watch that too,” he said.

Spain and Britain have had the highest numbers of cases in Europe, reporting 103 and 101 cases respectively. Britain announced 14 new cases yesterday – with 11 of those being transmitted in-country – people who had not travelled to Mexico or the United States but became infected from others who had the virus.

Japan confirmed a total of 80 cases of swine flu, most of them high school students and teachers, amid fears hundreds have been infected, a media report said.