Mexico accuses WHO of ignoring flu peril

World health experts were today accused of initially ignoring the dangers of swine flu.

Mexico’s chief epidemiologist said the World Health Organisation was slow to respond to the country’s warning about a health crisis that turned into the global scare and demanded an investigation.

Dr Miguel Angel Lezana said his centre put out an alert on April 16 about alarming occurrences of flu and unusual pneumonia in Mexico. But no action was taken until eight days later when the WHO said it was “very, very concerned” the outbreak could grow into a pandemic.

“It seems it should have been more immediate,” Dr Lezana, director of the National Epidemiology Centre, said.

He said that after a rash of flu and pneumonia cases emerged in Mexico in April, his department was so alarmed that it notified by e-mail the local office of the Pan American Health Organisation, as called for by international protocols.

“The procedure is very clearly established,” he said. “You have to notify the local office, then it sends the notification to the regional office. They analyse the data and decide whether to send it to the WHO in Geneva.”

Mr Lezana said the illnesses raised concerns because the flu was occurring at least a month after flu season normally ends in Mexico.

But four days later, PAHO still had not responded, so the National Epidemiology Centre again contacted the local PAHO office and asked for an explanation and whether more information was needed, Dr Lezana said.

PAHO responded that the alert was being handled, he said. But Dr Lezana said that as far as he knew, the PAHO regional office in Washington and WHO took no action until April 24, when WHO announced an epidemic was under way.

He said that to prevent delays in the future, there should be an investigation of the WHO’s handling of the crisis, adding that the public health agency should decide whether it should be an internal or an independent probe.

Dr Lezana denied that Mexico was slow to react to the outbreak.

“We didn’t wait. We notified them in time of this event,” he said, adding that while Mexico waited for WHO to assist, it tried to stem the outbreak and identify it.

In Mexico today new cases and the death rate were levelling off the country’s top medical officer said. Health authorities said they have confirmed 300 swine flu cases and 12 deaths due to the virus.

“The fact that we have a stabilisation in the daily numbers, even a drop, makes us optimistic,” Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said. “Because what we’d expect is geometric or exponential growth. And that hasn’t been the situation.”

The impact was most evident in Mexico City. Traffic cleared in the notoriously clogged avenues, and the attorney general’s office said crime was down one-third compared with last week. Mexico City’s infamous smog dropped to levels normally seen only on holidays.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said authorities would use the extensive shutdown beginning Friday to consider whether to extend emergency measures or ease some restrictions. The five days include today’s Labour Day holiday, the weekend, and the Cinco de Mayo observance on Monday, minimising the disruption.

Meanwhile elsewhere Switzerland and the Netherlands became the latest countries to report infections. Canada, New Zealand, Britain, Germany, Spain, Israel and Austria also have confirmed cases.

The Red Cross said it was readying an army of 60 million volunteers who could be deployed around the world to help slow the virus’ spread.