World Health Organization to declare Swine Flu a global pandemic
April 30th, 2009 - 2:41 am ICT by adminGENEVA (BNO NEWS) – The World Health Organization has decided to raise its pandemic alert level to a phase 5, declaring swine flu a global pandemic, BNO News has exclusively learned.
The new phase will be announced at 2000 GMT during an international telephone news conference, which was earlier announced by the World Health Organization. It is unclear if there has been an emergency meeting of the committee tonight, but BNO News earlier reported that a meeting was expected either late today or early on Thursday. The announcement follows a WHO conference call with a group of scientists from around the world who gave their view on the new H1N1 virus.
It will be the first time the World Health Organization used phase 5 since they introduced the 6-phase system several years ago. According to BNO News sources at the World Health Organization, they do not know if they are dealing with “a very mild or a very severe pandemic.” A number of actions to be taken will also be announced.
It will be the first influenza pandemic since the Asiatic Flu in 1989 which killed around 1 million people.
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