As the swine flu outbreak continued to spread to countries around the world, the World Health Organization on Wednesday took the unprecedented step of raising the infectious disease alert level to phase 5, setting the stage for increased efforts to combat the infection.
The virus "must be taken seriously because of its ability to spread to every country in the world," WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said at a news conference in Geneva.
The raised level, triggered by the wide outbreaks in the U.S. and Mexico, means that "all countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans, and remain on high alert for unusual outbreaks," she said.
Phase 5 is considered a situation in which the likelihood of a pandemic "is very high or inevitable," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, an assistant director-general.
A pandemic is a disease outbreak occurring over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting large numbers of people. That does not necessarily mean it is lethal.
Chan noted that because of planning triggered by the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the potential emergence of bird flu a year later, the world is better prepared for an epidemic. "For the first time in history, we can check the evolution of a pandemic in real time," she said.
The increased level came as the swine flu outbreak in the United States spread to five more states, bringing the total to at least 95 cases. Texas authorities also announced the first U.S. death from the virus, a nearly 2-year-old boy who died in a Houston hospital Monday.
The boy was a Mexican national from Mexico City who had traveled to Matamoros, Mexico, on a commercial flight with his family April 4, then crossed the border to visit relatives in Brownsville, Texas. The boy, who had an unspecified "underlying health condition," developed flu symptoms shortly after arriving in the United States and was taken to a hospital in Brownsville before being transferred to Houston.
Officials doubt he infected anyone on the flight because his symptoms did not develop until four days later.
Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maine and Nevada joined the list of states with confirmed cases, bringing the total to 11 states. Texas said its total had climbed to 16 cases; New York has 51; and California has 15.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Marine Corps said a Marine at the Twentynine Palms base had been confirmed to have the virus. About 30 men at the base who have come into contact with him have been quarantined.
