Like many of you, we’ve been watching and listening for the swine flu news today. Late this afternoon the influenza alert level was raised from 3 to 4 by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is run by the United Nations.

What that means is that there is now possibility of ‘community level’ outbreaks, because the virus has been verified to spread from human-to-human into at least two countries in one WHO region. The WHO stresses that ‘Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion.’

An Emergency Committee considered epidimiological data from the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and other countries on confirmed outbreaks of the of A/H1N1 swine influenza in reaching their decision about the new alert level.

Today’s announcement marked a change from the previous phase 3 alert level, characterized by mainly animal infections and few human infections. WHO marks a break from phase 3 to phase 4 as going from preparedness to one of response and mitigation.

There is no effective vaccine yet developed for the A/H1N1 swine influenza. The U.S. Centers for disease control states that the virus was susceptible to the prescription antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir. To help stay healthy, the CDC recommends to cover (your sneezing), wash (hands often with soap and water), and avoid (touching your eyes, nose, and mouth).

The WHO states that there is no risk of flu infection from well-cooked pork. Also, they advise no restriction of travel or border closure. The WHO Director-General “stated”:http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009/h1n1_20090427/en/index.html that “given the widespread presence of the virus …the containment of the outbreak is not feasible.”

As of today (April 27), the World Health Organization reported a total of 40 laboratory confirmed human cases of swine influenza A(H1N1), with no deaths in the U.S.; 26 confirmed human cases of infection with the same virus in Mexico with seven deaths; Canada reported six cases, with no deaths; Spain has reported one case, with no deaths. The Washington Post reported much higher suspected cases, and we’ve seen other numbers of all kinds on the Internet.

“A pandemic of influenza means that we have a new influenza virus to which most people in the world either have little immunity or no immunity and so this is different than our situation with regular influenza viruses,” said Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General ad. Interim for Health Security and Environment at the World Health Organization in an April 26 press conference.

“When we see such a new virus, if it has the ability to infect people and if it especially has the ability to move from person to person in a way that it is able to cause community outbreaks, large outbreaks of infection, then we certainly have the potential for the virus to spread from one country or one location to another,” Dr. Fukuda added.

和大家一樣,我們也一直在關注今天的豬流感新聞。今天下午晚些時候,世界衛生組織(WHO)將豬流感警告級別從3級提高到4級。

由此可見,現在有可能出現“群體爆發”,因為已證實豬身上的病毒可從人與人的接觸蔓延到一個疫情區域范圍內的至少兩個國家。WHO強調4級警告說明感染流行病的幾率顯著提高,但并不代表一定染上流行病。

一應急小組認為美國、墨西哥、加拿大和其他國家收集到的流行病數據已確證這些區域爆發了A/H1N1豬流感,并就是否發出新的警告級別做出一致決定。

此次宣告標記著此前主要以動物、少數人感染為特征的3級警告級別發生變化。從做好準備到做出回應并緩和局勢,WHO對3級到4級爆發的一次疫情做好記錄。

美國疾病控制中心說目前尚未研發出遏制A/H1N1豬流感的有效疫苗,但病毒對處方類的抗病毒藥物如奧賽米韋、扎那密韋敏感。為確保大家健康,控制中心建議打噴嚏時要遮掩,用香皂勤洗手,避免手接觸眼睛、鼻子和嘴。

WHO說煮熟的豬肉不存在感染豬流感的風險;還建議不必限制出行或封鎖出入境。WHO總干事指出鑒于豬流感病毒廣泛蔓延...遏制其爆發是不可行的。

截止今日(4月27日),WHO報道共有40人被實驗室確認感染了豬流感病毒A/H1N1。美國無死亡病例;墨西哥26人感染,7人死亡;加拿大6例,無死亡;西班牙1例,無死亡。華盛頓郵報報道了更多的疑似病例。我們也已在網絡上獲知還有各種各樣的其他一些病例。

WHO的“健康安全和環境臨時小組”負責人、助理總干事Keiji Fukuda博士在4月26日的新聞發布會上說,“流感大流行意味著我們遇到了一種新型的流感病毒,全世界的大多數人對其的免疫力低下或并無免疫力,因此有別于常規流感病毒。”

Keiji Fukuda博士補充到,“當我們面臨這樣一種新型病毒時,如果它能傳給人類且尤其能以一種導致群體爆發、大面積感染的方式從一人傳到另一人身上的話,那么我們也當然有能力防止它從一國或一個區域蔓延到其他國或區域。”