US president Barack Obama addresses the swine flu problem
- 00:01:26
- ITN
US president Barack Obama addresses the swine flu problem
The World Health Organisation has warned the first flu pandemic in 40 years is imminent. Director General Margaret Chan raised the official alert level to phase 5, the last step before a global outbreak is declared, and called for countries to implement emergency plans. She said the first potential pandemic since the 1968 outbreak of Hong Kong Flu had "the capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world" but added that governments are "better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in history." In Mexico, where as many as 176 people have died from the H1N1 strain, citizens were told to stay at home for a five-day partial shutdown of the economy. Ten countries have reported cases of the H1N1 strain, and Texas officials said a 22-month-old boy had died while on a family visit from Mexico, the first confirmed swine flu death outside the country. But US President Barack Obama said there was no need for panic and rejected the possibility of closing the border with Mexico. In Mexico City, all schools, restaurants, nightclubs and public events have been shut down to try to stop the disease from spreading, bringing normal life to a virtual standstill. Nearly a week after the virus emerged, Spain reported the first case in Europe of swine flu in a person who had not been to Mexico, illustrating the danger of person-to-person transmission. France said it would seek a European Union ban on flights to Mexico. The EU, the United States and Canada have advised against non-essential travel to Mexico, and many tourists were hurrying to leave, crowding airports. Some experts have questioned the wisdom of depleting stocks of anti-viral drugs to battle H1N1, which outside Mexico has caused largely mild symptoms. Masato Tashiro, head of the influenza virus research centre at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Disease and a member of the WHO emergency committee, said: "The virus is relatively weak and about the same as regular influenza viruses passed on via human-to-human contact. I don't believe it will become virulent. "The threat to health from the avian influenza and its fatality rate is much greater than the new flu. "I am very worried that we will use up the stockpile of anti-flu medicine and be unarmed before we need to fight against the avian influenza. The greatest threat to mankind remains the H5N1 avian influenza."
ITN | April 30, 2009
