Confirmed number of swine flu cases jump to 658
The number of confirmed swine flu cases seemed to double overnight. The number of confirmed cases is now at 658, up from 367 a day ago. The World Health Organization said Saturday that although it is still preparing for a pandemic, the rise of confirmed cases of swine flu to 658 was largely because of confirmation of suspected cases in Mexico.
“I would still propose that a pandemic is imminent because we’re seeing the disease spread to other countries. We have not seen yet that sustained transmission outside one WHO region,” said Dr. Michael J Ryan, the WHO’s director of its global alert and response team. “At this point we expect that phase 6 will be reached; we have to hope that it is not reached,” he said. Dr. Ryan also went on to say that “Pandemics are serious,” and further noted that the phases of a pandemic describe “the geographic spread of the disease, not its severity.” See Phases of a Pandemic for more information about the 6 phases involve din a pandemic.
As of Today, the WHO reported that there are 658 confirmed cases of 2009 H1N1 also known as swine flu, in 16 countries around the world. Most of the confirmed cases have been in Mexico, where there are 397 infected people. There have also been 16 deaths attributed to the swine flu virus in Mexico, According to the WHO. The increase in confirmed cases is from “ongoing testing of previously collected samples and not a surge of people falling sick,” Ryan said.
Mexico’s health minister indicated Saturday that the total cases of swine flu in that country had reached 443, although that number was not reflected in the WHO’s total. The number of confirmed 2009 H1N1 cases by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (click here for a list of updates from the CDC) was also raised on Saturday to 160, up from Friday’s total of 141.
Other countries throughout the world have also reported new confirmed cases of swine flu which will be included in a updated WHO total later Saturday. Those countries include France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Israel. The WHO noted that the large increase in confirmed 2009 H1N1 cases in Mexico are representative of testing on backlogged specimens. “What the increase reflects is that we are moving forward in confirming many of the swine flu cases that have been left untested for some time, so in an way that’s reassuring,” said WHO spokesman Paul Garwood. “we haven’t seen, say, a spike in new cases or new influenza cases appearing in Mexico City, for example,” Garwood continued. “It’s just the fact that this reporting backlog is bearing fruit and we’re seeing the results of that.”
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