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Swine flu
'unstoppable', says WHO chief
Mexico City (Mexico): World Health Organization
head Margaret Chan has warned a forum in Mexico that the swine flu virus worldwide
is now unstoppable. The WHO says most H1N1 cases are mild, with many people recovering
unaided. As the summit opened, the UK alone was projecting more than 100,000 new
cases of H1N1 a day by the end of the summer. "As we see today, with well over
100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further
international spread is unstoppable," The BBC quoted Dr. Chan, as saying in her
opening remarks. She stressed that the overwhelming majority of patients experienced
mild symptoms and made a full recovery within a week, often in the absence of
any form of medical treatment. The exceptions, she said, were pregnant women and
people with underlying health problems, who were at higher risk from complications
from the virus and should be monitored if they fell ill. "For a pandemic of moderate
severity, this is one of our greatest challenges: helping people to understand
when they do not need to worry, and when they do need to seek urgent care," Dr
Chan said. Turning to the summit venue, the WHO chief added: "Mexico is a safe,
as well as a beautiful and warmly gracious, place to visit." Leaders and experts
from 50 countries are in Cancun for the two-day meeting to discuss strategies
for combating the virus. It has been more than two months since the initial alert
over swine flu. Since then, the H1N1 virus has entered more than 100 countries,
infected more than 70,000 people and killed more than 300 worldwide. -July
3, 2009 Go
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