Reply #7: Americans told to wear masks as swine flu spreads round globe

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6173927.ece

Doctors in America are advising worried patients to buy painters’ masks as a precaution against the global outbreak of swine flu that appears to have spread from Mexico to the United States, New Zealand and possibly Europe.

With the worldwide death toll standing at about 81 and with about 1,300 people infected, authorities across the globe are torn between the desire to slow down a potential flu pandemic and the need to avoid bringing major cities on every continent to an economic standstill.

As of today, the US was still allowing people to cross the border from Mexico – where it is thought the swine flu emerged last week – although customs officials at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings were given protective masks. It is thought that eight people in US border towns have gone down with swine flu, along with others in Kansas and New York.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE53P13720090426
Experts to advise WHO on pandemic alert phase

GENEVA (Reuters) - International experts will convene on Tuesday to advise the World Health Organisation (WHO) whether to raise the current pandemic alert level due to the new flu virus in Mexico and the United States, a WHO spokesman said.

"We need more epidemiological evidence from Mexico before the experts would be in a position to advise on a pandemic change," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters on Sunday.

"An advisory body will recommend whether or not the director-general should up (raise) the phase. They are meeting again on Tuesday," he said.

A new type of swine flu has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the United States.

The current pandemic alert level is 3 on a scale of 1 (low risk of human cases) to 6 (efficient, sustained transmission between humans).

About 15 international experts held a teleconference on Saturday to advise WHO director-general Margaret Chan on measures to take to combat the outbreaks.