The World Health Organization on Monday raised its flu pandemic alert level from three to four, signalling a “significant increase in the risk of a pandemic.”
Dr. Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant-general for health, security and the environment, told journalists that while the hike is a “significant step towards pandemic influenza, it’s also a phase which says we are not there yet.”
Experts met earlier on Monday to decide if the WHO should raise the alert level as the death toll from the virus rose to 149 in Mexico.
Fukuda, who formerly served as WHO’s Global Influenza Program coordinator from 2006-2008, said that experts also recommended during the meeting that the virus is currently too “widespread to make containment a feasible” strategy.
As a result, “focusing on mitigation is really an important focus” for countries dealing with the disease, he said.
Fukuda also stressed that experts did not recommend closing borders or restricting travel.
“With the virus being widespread… closing borders or restricting travel really has very little effects in stopping the movement of this virus,” he said.
A Japanese American, Fukuda, 54, holds a medical degree from the Univ. of Vermont and completed his residency in internal medicine at Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center in San Francisco, Calif. He and associate Dr. Tim Uyeki were the focus on a New York Times feature titled The Flu Hunters in 2004.
Putting an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the swine flu virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. That move could lead governments to set trade, travel and other restrictions aimed at limiting the disease’s spread.
The WHO’s Phase 6 is the pandemic phase, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world. (Story continues after jump)
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