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Flu spreads in US, Asia pledges common fight

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-08 17:33

WASHINGTON -- United States health officials warned of worsening outbreaks of the new A/H1N1 flu, and a top global health official predicted up to a third of the world's population could eventually become infected.

Asian countries, which have had few cases so far, pledged on Friday to increase stockpiles of flu medicine and cooperate in an emergency, taking no chances this time after the damage wrought by SARS and bird flu in recent years.

Special coverage: A (H1N1) Influenza Outbreak Related readings:  Asian countries pledge common fight against flu  US public at risk from complacency over flu -CDC  WHO: Up to 2 billion people might get H1N1 flu  Health ministers of ASEAN+3 countries meet for flu-fighting  We're now well prepared to tackle the flu

US officials say they expect the virus to spread to all 50 states and to cause many infections, ranging from mild to severe. There have been two deaths in the United States.

"So far we are not seeing any signs of this petering out," said Dr Richard Besser, acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We are on the upswing."

A batch of detailed studies on the new "swine flu" virus showed it was a strange marriage between a triple-hybrid virus with pig, human and bird elements and a European swine virus not seen before in North America.

Mexico's confirmed death toll ticked up to 44 as labs tested a backlog of samples from people who died in March and April. The CDC reported 896 confirmed cases of the new A/H1N1 flu in 41 states.

A worker dressed in a protective suit disinfects the interior of a train carriage to prevent the spread of the influenza A/H1N1 virus, formerly referred to as swine flu, at the Constitucion de 1917 subway station in Mexico City May 7, 2009. [Agencies]

Though Mexican officials said they were over the worst, Besser said the country still had significant transmission.

A THIRD OF THE WORLD

More than 2,000 people in 24 countries have been infected with the virus, the World Health Organization said.

The WHO's Dr. Keiji Fukuda urged Asian governments to stay alert for a possible wider pandemic that "could infect a third or more of the world's population in the next several months, in the next year.

"Even if the illnesses appear relatively mild on an individual level, with large numbers of infections on the global population, you can get large numbers of seriously ill people," Fukuda told health ministers from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South at a meeting in Bangkok on Thursday.

Fukuda said A/H1N1 flu is not yet spreading in a sustained way outside North America, so the global pandemic level remains at 5 out of 6.

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