Swine Flu Pandemic Alert Raised To Second Highest Level

Today the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the pandemic alert for the Swine flu virus to a "phase 5 alert". This is the 2ND highest level and confirms what I have suspected all along, that the WHO believes that it is highly likely that a global outbreak of the disease will soon be upon us.

In an interview the WHO Director Margaret Chan confirmed and declared a phase 5 alert after discussions with flu experts worldwide. With this decision it is quite likely that significant measures will be taken worldwide in order to combat the current outbreak.

An alert level of phase 5 means that there has been recent, current, and sustained transmission of the disease in individuals in two or more countries. A phase 6 alert is probably not all that far off only requiring transmission to be shown in two or more regions of the world. In all reality we are probably already in a phase 6 alert and official are just waiting to get laboratory confirmation. A phase 6 alert also means that we are experience a global pandemic for a new disease that is potentially deadly too.

The Swine flu was first discovered over a month ago in Mexico and officials believe that there have been over 1,000 people infected with over 150 deaths. In the United States there have been over 100 confirmed cases and 1 death. The one death in the U.S. was of a nearly 2 year old boy in Texas.

The silvering lining at this point though is that only minor symptoms have been reported for infected individuals outside of Mexico. But this is also the big mystery that is keeping everybody scared. What has the disease caused so many deaths in Mexico while at the same time caused only minor symptoms in other countries?

That is point in time there has no been any suggestions to close up borders but there have been school closing in Mexico and the United States and the state of Texas even cancelled all high school athletics activities until at least May 11TH. In Great Britain school have also been closed after one middle school aged girl was diagnosed with the disease.

The swine flu outbreak of 2009 is the biggest influenza threat since the H5N1 bird flu out break of 2003 that killed over 200 people in 15 different countries.