World wide alarm sounded over swine flu

UNITED NATIONS: As the panic and fears spread over the outbreak of new influenza strain, governments around the world are on alert, taking urgent measures to head off the spread of the swine flu deadly virus.
Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment at the World Health Organization held a global press conference Sunday to assess the ominous threat to different parts of the world and evolve strategies to control it.

Several Governments on Sunday issued travel advisories urging people not to travel to Mexico the apparent origin of the outbreak, where 81 people have died and some 1,300 have been infected. China, Russia and others set up quarantines for anyone possibly infected. Some countries banned pork imports from Mexico, even though there is no link between food products and the flu\, and others were screening air travellers for signs of the disease.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon told a press conference on Sunday, saying he has given the government extraordinary powers to tackle the multi-strain swine flu outbreak.

In the United States, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and top health officials addressed a news conference Sunday afternoon to address what the government was doing to control the spread of the disease. Eight students from New York City are likely to have contracted swine flu, and there have been 11 confirmed cases in California, Kansas and Texas.

No deaths from swine flu have been reported in the United States, the New York Times reported Sunday.

On Sunday, the government of Hong Kong announced some of the toughest measures yet of any jurisdiction in response to a swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the US.

Officials urged residents not to travel to Mexico and ordered the immediate detention at a hospital of anyone who arrives with a fever and symptoms of a respiratory illness after travelling in the previous seven days through a city with a laboratory-confirmed outbreak.

The swine flu virus causes flu-like symptoms such as a sudden fever, cough or muscle aches. It can spread quickly because no one has natural immunity and a vaccine takes months to develop. Those who are sick with respiratory illnesses should avoid crowded areas and wear masks.

‘This virus has clearly a pandemic potential,’ warned World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan.

The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997.

A 1968 ‘Hong Kong’ flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally according to a news report.

The health authorities in the United States have taken a number of measures and urged people to take precautions after eleven people were infected.

Argentina declared a health alert, requiring anyone arriving on flights from Mexico to confirm if they had flu-like symptoms.

In Europe, ten New Zealand students who recently returned from Mexico have tested positive for influenza and are ‘likely’ to have the potentially fatal swine flu.

The New Zealand Foreign Ministry has issued a travel health notice for Mexico, California and Texas, where swine flu cases have been confirmed.

It advised anyone who had recently travelled to these areas and developed flu-like symptoms to seek immediate medical attention.

Thousands of miles away in Asia, Hong Kong stepped up surveillance at border control points.

‘People who develop respiratory illness within seven days after returning from the affected places should put on a surgical mask and seek medical consultation from public clinics and hospitals immediately,’ said Thomas Tsang, controller of the Centre for Health Protection.

In China, the quarantine authority issued an emergency notice requiring people to report flu-like symptoms at ports of entry when coming from affected places.

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