News Service from House Harris

EUR: WHO tries to come up with swine flu plan

GENEVA, April 26 AP - The World Health Organisation tried to determine on Sunday how to battle a deadly new strain of swine flu, holding teleconferences with staff and flu experts around the world as countries from New Zealand to France reported suspected cases.

WHO stopped short of recommending specific measures to stop the disease, urging governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks but leaving further decisions up to individual nations.

Governments across Asia began quarantining those with symptoms of the deadly virus and some issued travel warnings for Mexico.

Some governments were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials' reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.

In a second day of top-level meetings, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and senior advisors were trying to determine what measures the agency could recommend to stop the spread of the outbreak, which she called a public health emergency of "pandemic potential" because the virus can pass from human to human.

New Zealand said that 10 students who took a school trip to Mexico "likely" had swine flu. Israel said a man who had recently visited Mexico had been hospitalised while authorities try to determine whether he had swine flu. France said that two people who had returned from Mexico with fevers were being monitored in regions near the port cities of Bordeaux and Marseille.

Spain's Health Ministry said three people who just returned from Mexico were under observation in hospitals in the northern Basque region, in southeastern Albacete and the Mediterranean port city of Valencia.

Governments must report any unusual cases of flu to WHO, and the agency was considering whether to issue nonbinding recommendations on travel and trade restrictions, and even border closures. It is up to governments to decide whether to follow the advice.

"Countries are encouraged to do anything that they feel would be a precautionary measure," WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said. "All countries need to enhance their monitoring."

H1N1 influenza is a subset of influenza A that is a combination of bird, pig and human viruses, according to the WHO. Symptoms include a fever of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius), body aches, coughing, a sore throat, respiratory congestion and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhoea.

At least 81 people have died from severe pneumonia caused by the flu-like illness in Mexico, according to the WHO.

The virus is usually contracted through direct contact with pigs, but Joseph Domenech, chief of animal health service at U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency in Rome, said all indications were that the virus is being spread through human-to-human transmission.

No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.

The WHO's pandemic alert level is currently at to phase 3. The organisation said the level could be raised to phase 4 if the virus shows sustained ability to pass from human to human.

Phase 5 would be reached if the virus is found in at least two countries in the same region.

"The declaration of phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalise the organisation, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short," WHO said.

Phase 6 would indicate a full-scale global pandemic.

Mexico closed schools, museums, libraries and theatres in a bid to contain the outbreak after hundreds were sickened there. U.S. authorities said 11 people were infected with swine flu, and all recovered or were recovering.

Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors who came back from affected areas with fevers would be quarantined. China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival an affected area had to report to authorities.

Tokyo's Narita airport installed a device to test the temperatures of passengers arriving from Mexico.

Indonesia increased surveillance at all entry points for travellers with flu-like symptoms - using devices at airports that were put in place years ago to monitor for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and bird flu. It said it was ready to quarantine suspected victims if necessary.

A Russian health agency said any passenger from North America running a fever would be quarantined until cause of the fever is determined.

Hong Kong and South Korea warned against travel to the Mexican capital and three affected provinces. Italy's health ministry also advised citizens to postpone travel to affected areas.

Serbia on Saturday banned all imports of pork from North America, despite reassurances from the FAO that pigs appear not to be the immediate source of infection.

Italy's agriculture lobby, Coldiretti, warned against panic reaction, noting that farmers lost hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) because of consumers boycotts during the 2001 mad cow scare and the 2005 bird flu outbreak.

Japanese Agriculture Minister Shigeru Ishiba appeared on TV to calm consumers, saying it was safe to eat pork.

In Egypt, health authorities were examining about 350,000 pigs being raised in Cairo and other provinces for swine flu.