WHO: 1085 confirmed cases reported globally

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Source: CCTV.com | 05-05-2009 15:11

Twenty-one countries have now officially reported one thousand 85 confirmed cases of the virus to the World Health Organization. Our latest numbers are as of 18:00 GMT on Monday.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director General for Health Security and Environment of the WHO, speaks during a press briefing to announce new developments on the swine flu situation and the World Health Organization's response at the World Health Organization (WHO)  headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, April 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)

The largest numbers of cases are still in North America, notably Mexico with 590 cases and the United States with 286. Those cases include 26 deaths. Other governments have reported confirmed cases, but no deaths.

The WHO is keeping its pandemic alert level at Phase 5. It has no plan yet to raise it to Phase 6 because there is still no sustained human-to-human infections of the new virus outside of North America. Level 6 would mean a full pandemic is occurring.

However, WHO stressed that it's "critical" for governments to maintain and strengthen their surveillance, given the continued spread and the highly unpredictable behavior of the virus.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General, WHO, said, "We have concerns about the infection travelling to the southern hemisphere because that part of the world will be heading into the winter months and the winter months are when virus usually thrive, so you typically see epidemics and outbreaks of influenza occur during those colder months. But I think you can see from right now that this virus continues to move to a variety of countries in the northern hemisphere. So it is not that surveillance has to be strong just in the southern hemisphere, it really needs to be strong everywhere."

Editor:Zhang Pengfei