UN Health Agency Urges Preparedness for H1N1
New York, Nov 3 2009 5:10PM
The United Nations health agency today reiterated that countries need to remain prepared for the H1N1 virus, noting that the world has not yet hit the peak influenza season between January and February when more cases are expected.
“It is completely expected that they will be seeing more influenza cases at this time, and that they will continue to see more,” Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html), told a news conference in Geneva.
An H1N1 update
issued by the agency last week indicated that large parts of
North America and parts of Europe are already over what WHO
calls the epidemic threshold, so there is substantial
influenza activity and more is expected.
Mr. Hartl
said the indication is that this will become widespread
across the Northern Hemisphere and temperate zones as these
areas move forward through the late autumn and
winter.
In a related development, WHO has (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_11_03/en/index.html)
deployed a team of experts to Ukraine, following a request
from the Government, which has recorded more than 250,000
cases of influenza-like illness.
“As the pandemic
virus has rapidly become the dominant influenza strain
worldwide, it can be assumed that most cases of influenza in
Ukraine are caused by the H1N1 virus,” the agency said in
a statement.
The team will begin initial work in the
Lviv region, where reported numbers of cases showing severe
manifestations of acute respiratory illness have been
especially high.
While many questions remain to be
answered, WHO stated that the outbreak in Ukraine may be
indicative of how the virus can behave in the Northern
Hemisphere during the winter season, particularly in health
care settings typically found in Eastern
Europe.
Despite concerns about the side effects of the
H1N1 vaccine, WHO said it remains one of the best tools
available to fight the virus.
“It has already been
administered to hundreds of thousands of people. And so far
we have not seen any severe side effects, and the number of
side effects or adverse events, as we would call them, from
this vaccine is in line with what we would expect from a
seasonal flu vaccine,” said Mr. Hartl.
“Remember
this vaccine is no different from any other vaccine in the
sense that all vaccines will on rare occasions produce
adverse events,” he noted, pointing out that the
advantages of getting vaccinated far outweigh the risks at
this point.
As of 25 October, there have been more
than 440,000 laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic
influenza H1N1 worldwide and over 5,700 deaths reported to
WHO.
ENDS