The World Health Organization scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday to decide whether to declare a global swine flu pandemic as confirmed cases of H1N1 virus continue to soar worldwide. By early Thursday morning, the U.N. health agency had recorded more than 27,700 cases in 74 countries, with 141 deaths.
Tag Archives: virus
Australian swine flu spike could force WHO pandemic declaration
A sharp increase in the number of reported cases of the H1N1 virus in Australia may prompt the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the first global pandemic in over forty years.
Mexico’s battered image yields travel deals
Mexico’s tourism industry has endured some brutal punches this year. First, the global financial crisis hampered vacation spending.
Candidate virus for H1N1 vaccine arrives at CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received a candidate vaccine virus for swine flu from one institution Friday, spokesman Thomas Skinner said in an e-mail.
In Japan, Swine Flu Spreading Quickly
The number of swine flu cases in Japan are escalating with surprising speed, and health officials are not sure why. The Japanese government on Wednesday confirmed the first two cases of the disease in Tokyo, the world’s most populous metropolitan area
H1N1 Virus: The First Legal Action Targets a Pig Farm
In an initial step toward what could be the first wrongful-death suit of its kind, Texas resident Steven Trunnell has filed a petition against Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, based in Virginia, and the owner of a massive pig farm in Perote, Mexico, near the village of La Gloria, where the earliest cases of the new H1N1 flu were detected. Trunnell filed the petition in his home state on behalf of his late wife, Judy Dominguez Trunnell, the 33-year-old special-education teacher who on May 4 became the first U.S
Judging the WHO’s Reaction to the H1N1 (Swine Flu) Threat
Few global health decisions have created quite as much commotion as that on April 29, when the World Health Organization , responding to the escalating spread of the H1N1 flu, raised its pandemic alert level for the first time to phase 5, meaning that a full pandemic was considered imminent. As of May 11, the WHO has reported more than 4,600 cases in 30 countries — including 2,600 cases in nearly every state in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and the threat level remains at phase 5. But over the past two weeks, fears over H1N1 have cooled considerably, as the virus has failed to spread easily outside North America and the number of deaths from the disease has remained low, leaving the WHO fending off critics who questioned whether the international agency overreacted
WHO reports big jump in swine flu cases
The World Health Organization on Saturday reported 3,440 confirmed cases of swine flu in 29 countries, with 48 deaths from the sickness. The virus, also called H1N1, has spread as Australia reported its first confirmed case. On Friday there were 2,500 confirmed cases in 25 countries.
WHO reports 2,500 cases of swine flu
The World Health Organization on Friday reported 2,500 confirmed cases of swine flu in 25 countries, with 44 deaths from the disease. In the United States, the total number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, as swine flu is officially called, nearly doubled to 1,639 from the day before, with reports coming from 43 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Dr.
Hong Kong hotel guests freed from flu quarantine
Waving and cheering like survivors of a disaster, 200 guests of a Hong Kong business hotel who were confined for more than a week due to swine flu left the building Friday. Businessmen, families and tourists marched out of the Hong Kong Metropark Hotel in the Wanchai bar district at 8:30 p.m.