GENEVA – The World Health Organization declared H1N1 influenza A or a Swine Flu Pandemic Thursday — the first global flu epidemic in 41 years — as infections in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere climbed to nearly 30,000 cases. WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the announcement Thursday after the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts. Chan said she was moving the world to phase 6 — the agency's highest alert level — which means a pandemic, or global epidemic, is under way.
WHO said 74 countries had reported 28,774 cases of swine flu, including 144 deaths. Still, about half of the people who have died from swine flu were previously young and healthy — people who are not usually susceptible to flu.
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. Swine flu is also continuing to spread during the start of summer in the northern hemisphere. Normally, flu viruses disappear with warm weather, but swine flu is proving to be resilient.
Chile has the most swine flu cases in South America, and the southern hemisphere is moving into its winter flu season.
In the United States, where there have been more than 13,000 cases and at least 27 deaths from swine flu. The government has already taken steps like increasing availability of flu-fighting medicines and authorizing $1 billion for the development of a new vaccine against the novel virus.
In Mexico, where the epidemic was first detected, the outbreak peaked in April now has less than 30 cases reported a day, down from an average of 300. Mexico has confirmed 6,337 cases, including 108 deaths.
Many experts said the declaration of a pandemic did not mean the virus was getting deadlier. But the swine flu virus might evolve into a more dangerous strain in the future. "That is always a possibility with influenza viruses," said John Oxford, a professor of virology at St. Bart's and Royal London Hospital.
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