WHO declares first 21st century flu pandemic

By James Pethokoukis
Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:58pm EDT

GENEVA, June 11 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization declared an influenza pandemic on Thursday and advised governments to prepare for a long-term battle against an unstoppable new flu virus.
The United Nations agency raised its pandemic flu alert to phase 6 on a six-point scale, indicating the first influenza pandemic since 1968 is under way.

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Asian governments get advance notice of WHO plans to declare swine flu pandemic

By Michael Casey – 15 hours ago

 

BANGKOK — Asia prepared for even tighter swine flu controls Thursday as countries said they had received advance notice from the World Health Organization that it was planning to declare the first global flu pandemic in more than four decades.
Health ministries in Thailand and Indonesia said an email alert from WHO advised them that a pandemic would be declared as early as midnight local time.
"We are ready, because we have the experience with bird flu," Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told reporters. "The Health Ministry is on the highest alert, and people need not panic. We have sent a circular to all hospitals to prepare themselves."


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Swine Flu Pandemic in the Philippines

3 swine flu cases found in Vietnam; Philippines total hits 21

By Susan Cunningham, June 1, 3:13 PM, www.examiner.com.


Vietnam's first three swine flu victims, all now hospitalized in Saigon, recently returned from the United States. The latest are a Vietnamese-American and her nine-year-old son.

The number of cases in the Philippines hit 21 on Monday. The country has the region's largest number of people infected with the human-to-human-borne virus, more accurately called H1N1. All but one are Filipinos and most of them had recently visited North America.

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DOH Guidelines for Swine Flu

The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) has released the following advisories and guidelines for Filipinos and visitors to the Philippines. Please check these out and feel free to copy and email these files to your family and friends.

Does your well water up your risk of swine flu?

From http://www.examiner.com/

It’s easy for many of us to dismiss the threat of H1N1 influenza (swine flu) when New Hampshire isn’t among the states hardest hit. But new research suggests a hidden danger that can rob us of our protection against the swine flu and other flu viruses may be lurking in our backyards.

Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) researchers say low-level arsenic levels commonly found in contaminated well water may reduce the immune response to flu viruses. They studied the immune response in mice that drank water containing 100 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic for five weeks and were then exposed to the H1N1 infection. The researchers found that that immune response was initially inadequate in mice that drank the tainted water. When their immune systems did respond, they were “too robust and too late.” The mice that drank the arsenic-laced water were sicker during their infection than normal mice.

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First swine flu case hits RP but public told not to panic

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) confirmed on Thursday night that the country already has a case of the dreaded Influenza A(H1N1) virus.

“The Department of Health is officially announcing this evening the first confirmed case of influenza A(H1N1) in the Philippines," Secretary Francisco Duque III said via the World Health Organization (WHO) teleconference.

Duque assured that there “is no community level outbreak" and asked the public to be vigilant.

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In the eye of the storm is fear

The world cowers in fear as an unseen enemy known as swine flu killed scores of people and rendered thousands more dying in Mexico. Strains of the killer disease crossed the border to the United States and raced across the ocean to Europe and Asia. We will be the next victims if we don’t take precautions, health authorities worldwide tell citizens. Shall we dispute them? Health officials urge people to wear masks in public, wash hands often, drink lots of water, take handfuls of vitamins, eat fruits and vegetables and the mother tells a stubborn child: “Anak pag hinde ka maligo mag mukha kang baboy at magkaroon ka ng swine flu.”

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