BREAKING NEWS:World Health Organization set to raise swine-flu alert to highest level: reports

GENEVA – The World Health Organization held an emergency swine flu meeting Thursday and was likely to declare the first flu pandemic in 41 years as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere.

Indonesian health minister Siti Fadilah Supari said she had been notified by WHO that “today will be declared to be phase 6.”

Phase 6 is WHO’s highest alert level and means that a swine flu pandemic is under way. The last pandemic — the Hong Kong flu of 1968 — killed about 1 million people. Ordinary flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people each year.

Since the new flu strain — dubbed A(H1N1) — first emerged in Mexico and the United States in April, it has spread to 74 countries around the globe. On Wednesday, WHO reported 27,737 cases including 141 deaths. The agency has stressed that most cases are mild and require no treatment, but the fear is that a rash of new infections could overwhelm hospitals and health authorities — especially in poorer countries.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090611/ap_on_he_me/un_un_swine_flu

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The World Health Organization has informed its member nations that it is declaring a swine flu pandemic, the Associated Press reported Thursday. This is the first global flu epidemic in 41 years, the news agency said. Swine flu, also known as H1N1 flu, has been reported in 74 countries, totaling 27,737 cases, including 141 deaths, according to an update from the WHO on Wednesday.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/who-declares-swine-flu-pandemic-report-20096111017440

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