LONDON (AP) — A World Health Organization spokesman says the agency may raise its pandemic level to its highest alert, signifying a swine flu pandemic. WHO uses a six-level scale to assess the world's risk.
Last Wednesday, the agency raised the level to 5. Level 6 means a global outbreak of swine flu is under way. WHO spokesman Dick Thompson says Monday the direction WHO will take "will be dictated by the virus."
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais published Monday, WHO chief Margaret Chan implies the agency might raise the level to 6, but cautions that "Level 6 does not mean...we are coming near to the end of the world."
Without that explanation, Chan worries, raising to level 6 could cause "unnecessary panic."
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The heads of the United Nations and the World Health Organization say there are no imminent plans to raise its pandemic alert to its highest level.
In New York on Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says WHO "has no plan to raise the alert level to 6 at this moment." WHO chief Margaret Chan also tells the U.N. General Assembly by videolink from Geneva that "we are not there yet."
Level 6 — the highest — would mean that a global outbreak of swine flu is under way. WHO raised the level to 5 last week.
Chan says there were now more than confirmed cases of swine flu in 20 countries, and there is "no indication" the situation is similar to the flu outbreak in 1918. Ban and Chan say there was no justification now for banning imports based on swine flu.
My Take:
Level 6 or not that is the question. The above 2 articles were within one hour of each other. It seems the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
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