The World Health Organization is looking for evidence swine flu viruses are spreading in sustained waves before moving to pandemic alert level Phase 5, the agency’s top influenza expert explained Tuesday.
Dr. Keiji Fukuda said the WHO and its panel of expert advisers want to see that swine flu viruses haven’t just spread to a country like Canada or the United States from Mexico in a traveller, but that they have actually taken root and are continuing to transmit.
"What we are looking for also are cases in outbreak which indicate that the infection is becoming established in a community or becoming established in a country," Fukuda, the WHO’s acting assistant director-general for health security and environment said during what has become a daily media briefing.
"So even though we know that the virus has reached the United Kingdom and New Zealand, for example, in the form of infections in travellers, this is still a different situation than the infection becoming established in a community in those countries."
Stay with GroundReport–with more updates on this story as it breaks and send your comments to yourgroundreport@gmail.com or www.twitter.com/hipplepatel.
Leave Your Comments