A World Health Organisation emergency committee could raise its pandemic alert level to phase 4 or 5 as a deadly swine flu outbreak shows no signs of slowing. --PHOTO: REUTERS
GENEVA - A WORLD Health Organisation emergency committee could raise its pandemic alert level to phase 4 or 5 as a deadly swine flu outbreak shows no signs of slowing, a spokesman for the agency said on Monday.
Going to phase 4 would mean the WHO believes that a potential pandemic virus has shown it could transmit from person to person and cause large outbreaks.
MEANWHILE, shares in the leading German airline Lufthansa plunged in early Frankfurt tradingon Monday, losing more than 12 per cent amid the global swine flu outbreak.
Lufthansa stock then pulled out of its nosedive, but still posted a loss of 11.90 per cent to 8.475 euros (S$16.68), while the DAX index of German blue-chips was off by 1.90 per cent overall.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl also told a telephone briefing that US health officials have taken the first steps toward producing a vaccine against the virus that has killed more than 100 people in Mexico and spread to North America and Europe.
WHO's emergency committee brought forward its meeting to Monday to discuss the alert level for the swine flu outbreak, instead of Tuesday as originally planned.
World health officials have stepped up the battle against swine flu after Mexico upped the probable death toll from the epidemic to 103 and the United States declared a public emergency.
While there have not been any confirmed cases of swine flu outside of the Americas, screening of potential victims has already begun in parts of Europe.
Spain screened all passengers arriving off flights from Mexico on Sunday and tested eight suspected cases of swine fever as fear gripped Europe over the spread of the killer virus. Spanish authorities have already put eight people in quarantine after they returned recently from Mexico.
Two patients in Scotland were also under observation after their return from Mexico. But four people tested for swine flu in France after recently returning from the Americas were given the all-clear by doctors, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said on Monday.
'The commission is following the situation concerning the swine influenza very closely, internally together with the Member States, and internationally in cooperation with the World Health Organization,' Mr Barroso said.
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, at the talks in Luxembourg, admitted that 'any time you hit a big epidemic you have to have your worries'.
'When you see an epidemic moving as fast as this one you are going to have to do something,' he added. 'This is where coordinated European efforts seem to work quite well.' -- AFP
