MEDICAL VIEW:DR TONY Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health, said last evening that, while it remained the position that cases of swine flu outside of Mexico appeared to be mild in nature, people should not become complacent about the virus.
This was, he said, because “there is still quite a bit about this virus and its unfolding impact that we don’t fully understand”.
He said the virus could mutate now that it had been transmitted from humans to pigs in Canada. “It can mutate and that can change its behaviour. What we can say about what that behaviour change is likely to be or if indeed it would occur, is that we don’t know and so our state of preparedness has to be such that we can deal with any eventuality that might arise,” he said.
Dr Holohan also pointed out that if a large number of people were to succumb to the virus it could lead to high levels of absenteeism from schools and businesses. He urged businesses to prepare for this, pointing out that Forfás had set out guidelines in this regard, which can be viewed on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s website.
The World Health Organisation is keeping a close eye on the spread of the virus outside North America as it tries to decide whether to declare a pandemic, a top official said yesterday.
Keiji Fukuda, WHO acting assistant director general, said most of the people infected in Europe and Asia to date had been to Mexico, the outbreak epicentre, and had not caught the virus from the community-at-large.
It remains unclear when, or whether, the United Nations agency will raise its pandemic alert to the top of its six-point scale and activate emergency response plans to fight the virus. “We continue to see a number of infections related to travel in a number of different countries,” Mr Fukuda told journalists in Geneva, where the WHO is headquartered.
“We are not certain when we will go to Phase 6.” He stressed a designation of a full pandemic would not mean the WHO expected widespread death or severe illness from the strain.
The main concern, he said, is whether the disease takes hold in countries around the world and could emerge in a mutated or more dangerous form with time.
Its spread to countries in the southern hemisphere, such as New Zealand, that are entering the winter season when flu tends to be most acute is a particular worry, according to Mr Fukuda. He emphasised that although Mexican authorities have said the flu outbreak there has passed its peak, the world should not drop its guard and stop monitoring the new disease.
The WHO has confirmed 1,025 infections, including 26 deaths, in 20 countries. Many people have experienced only mild symptoms and recovered fully without medicines. – (additional reporting Reuters)