Flu fears prompt EU travel warning
April 27, 2009
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Daniel Woolls
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MADRID — The World Health Organization raised the pandemic alert level today in response to the fast-changing swine flu outbreak.
The Geneva based body raised the pandemic alert level to Phase 4 from its current Phase 3, the first time that has happened since the six-stage alert ladder was
devised.
Despite the evident spread of the swine flu viruses, the WHO’s acting assistant
director-general for health security and environment said the committee didn’t
feel there was enough evidence to move higher.
The European Union urged Europeans to postpone non-essential travel to the United States and Mexico because of the swine flu virus, and Spanish health officials confirmed the first case outside North America.
Meanwhile, a Canadian woman is undergoing tests at a hospital in Manchester to determine if she represents England’s first case of swine flu.
“A pandemic is not considered inevitable at this time,” Dr. Keiji Fukuda said in a late evening press conference in Geneva.
He suggested the world might stay at Phase 4 for some time, or move rapidly to Phase 5 depending on how the situation unfolds.
Fukuda said the WHO is also recommending against closing borders or restricting travel at this point.
WHO alert levels 4 and 5, signals that the swine flu virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading between humans.
The WHO’s Phase 6 is the pandemic phase, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world.
Dr. Frank Plummer, scientific director general of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, said Canadian officials sent a report to the WHO on April 1 after a case of swine flu was discovered in a village near Veracruz, Mexico.
India's government has issued a travel advisory, telling its citizens to restrict visits to Canada, Mexico, the U.S. and New Zealand to essential travel because of swine flu.
The Times of India reports all travellers flying into India from Canada and other countries that have confirmed cases of swine flu will be individually checked for symptoms such as a fever and upper respiratory tract infection.
In Canada, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan cautioned other countries against banning travel to nations with few cases of swine flu, saying it's probably an overreaction to begin issuing such travel bans at this early stage.
The Canadian government is considering upgrading its travel advisory to warn against non-essential travel to Mexico, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said.
It does not expect to reach a decision or issue the advisory until later today, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. David Butler-Jones added.
Butler-Jones also said the number of confirmed cases in Canada remains at six, but warned that could change.
"We will likely see more cases, we will likely see more severe illness and we will likely see death," Butler-Jones told reporters at a press conference in Ottawa.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is tracking clusters of severe respiratory illness with deaths in Mexico. Deaths have been reported," the travel report on the Department of Foreign Affairs website now says. "Mexico is currently experiencing an extended influenza season, and cases normally involve healthy young adults.
"To protect themselves from these risks, it is recommended that travellers follow the same precautionary measures as with seasonal influenza. These include receiving a seasonal flu vaccine, washing your hands often, covering coughs and sneezes, and staying home when ill. Canadians who have recently travelled to Mexico and who develop symptoms of influenza or severe respiratory illness, especially high fever are advised to seek medical attention immediately," it continues.
India and Malaysia are warning their citizens against travelling to Canada, and Australia's Foreign Affairs department makes note of the Canadian swine flu cases on its website.
Media reports from Malaysia say that country's Health Ministry is advising Malaysians against travelling to Canada, Mexico and selected U.S. states where there are swine flu cases.
Australia's Foreign Affairs department makes note of the Canadian swine flu cases on its website, telling Australian travellers to Canada they should consult a doctor or go to a hospital if they develop flu-like symptoms.
Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid a surging global concern about a possible pandemic.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said today that the threat of spreading swine flu infections is a cause for concern but "not a cause for alarm" as the United States undertook close border monitoring to contain it.
The United States will be issuing a travel advisory later today urging its citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Mexico, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said at a press conference.
Acting director Dr. Richard Besser said the travel advisory was "out of an abundance of caution".
The U.S. officially raised the number of confirmed swine-flu cases to 40 today, with 20 additional cases from a school in New York City already affected by the outbreak.
World stock markets fell as investors worried that the deadly outbreak could go global and derail any global economic recovery. Airlines took the brunt of the selling.
The virus was suspected in up to 103 deaths in Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak with more than 1,600 cases suspected, while 20 cases were confirmed in the United States and six in Canada.
In Luxembourg, EU Health Commissioner Andorra Vassiliou urged Europeans to postpone non-essential travel to the United States and Mexico "unless it is very urgent for them."
The EU health commissioner only makes recommendations to the 27 member countries; they must make a final decision to set travel advisories through their foreign ministries.
A top German holiday tour operator said it was suspending charter flights to Mexico City.
"These are early days. It's quite clear that there is a potential for this virus to become a pandemic and threaten globally," World Health Organization spokesman Peter Cordingley told AP Television News.
"But we honestly don't know," he added. "We don't know enough yet about how this virus operates. More work needs to be done."
Spanish Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said the country's first confirmed swine flu case was a young man in the town of Almansa who recently returned from Mexico for university studies and is responding well to treatment. Neither he nor any of the 20 other people under observation for the virus are in serious condition.
In the case of the Canadian woman in Manchester, a spokeswoman for the North West Area Health Authority says it’s going to take some time before the tests are confirmed.
Loren Grant says she does not know whether the woman was recently in Mexico, and the health authority isn’t releasing further details on her condition.
Canada currently has six confirmed cases of the illness, which has killed as many as 103 people and sickened up to 1,600 in Mexico.
Three New Zealanders recently home from Mexico were suspected of having swine flu. Israel has put two people under observation, while France and Brazil have also reported suspected cases.
Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said tests ``conclusively” confirmed swine flu in two people recovering in a hospital in Scotland with flu-like symptoms after a trip to Mexico. She did not say whether the tests showed if it was the same strain of flu that has affected Mexico. Calls seeking further information from Scottish officials were not immediately returned.
Cordingley singled out plane travel as an easy way the virus could spread, noting that the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are aboard planes at any time.
Governments in Asia — with potent memories of SARS and avian flu outbreaks — heeded the warning amid global fears of a pandemic.
Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used during the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers arriving at airports from North America. South Korea and Indonesia introduced similar screening.
In Malaysia, health workers in face masks took the temperatures of passengers as they arrived on a flight from Los Angeles.
Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors returning from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined.
Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon said pilots on international flights would be required to file a report noting any flu-like symptoms among their passengers before being allowed to land in Australia.
China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival had to report to authorities.
Some officials cautioned that the checks might not be enough.
The virus could move between people before any symptoms show up, said John Simon, a scientific adviser to Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection.
China, Russia and the Ukraine banned imports of pork and pork products from Mexico and three U.S. states that have reported cases of swine flu, and other governments were increasing their screening of pork imports.
Indonesia — the country hardest hit by bird flu — said it was banning all pork imports to prevent swine fever infections.
Germany's largest tour operator, the Hannover-based TUI, suspended all charter flights to Mexico City through May 4. The suspension includes flights operated by TUI itself and also through companies 1-2 Fly, Airtours, Berge & Meer, Grebeco and L'tur.
TUI said other holiday trips to Mexico would continue to operate but would not make stops in Mexico City "for the next few weeks." Japan's largest tour agency, JTB Corp., suspended tours to Mexico at least through June 30.
At Madrid's Barajas International Airport, passengers arriving from Mexico today were asked to fill out forms saying where they had been in Mexico and whether they had felt any cold symptoms, and were told to leave a contact address and phone number.
"Where we were, there was no real alarm but we followed what was happening on the news and we're a little bit worried," said Spaniard Filomeno Ruiz, back from vacation in Cancun.
Passengers were also given leaflets urging them to contact health authorities if they notice any symptoms in the 10 days following arrival.
New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said two students and a parent among a group of 15 who just came back from a class trip to Mexico had mild flu and were being tested for swine flu. Yesterday, officials said nine students and one teacher from a separate group that also were in Mexico "likely" have swine flu.
— With files from The Canadian Press and Joanna Smith
More:
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Too soon to tell if flu becomes a pandemic
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