The recent discovery of an outbreak in Chilean turkey farms also raised concerns that swine flu could combine with avian influenza and become a more dangerous virus, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
“The current H1N1 virus strain is a mixture of human, pig and bird [flu] genes and has proved to be very contagious but no more deadly than common seasonal flu viruses,” the Rome-based agency said in a statement.
“However, it could theoretically become more dangerous if it adds virulence by combining with H5N1, commonly known as avian flu, which is far more deadly but harder to pass along among humans,” it said.
The FAO said Chile did not have avian influenza, also known as bird flu, and the turkeys represented the first case of H1N1 among birds.
Around the world at least 2,185 people have died from swine flu, an official from the WHO said yesterday. However a spokesman said the latest figure “understates” the total number of deaths.
Britain and France have received their first batches of swine flu vaccine, officials said on Thursday, as governments began to arm themselves against a second wave of the pandemic in the northern winter.
Doses to combat the pandemic arrived as millions of schoolchildren prepared to return to school in the next two weeks, with concerns that the virus could spread easily between classrooms.
In South Korea, the education ministry announced that all elementary and secondary schoolchildren — 7.5 million students at 11,000 schools — will have their temperature checked daily to combat the spread of H1N1 when they return to school next week.
British and French health officials said the H1N1 vaccine should win licensing approval for distribution in their countries by October.
Belgium said it would get its first doses next month.
Spain said on Thursday it planned to start swine flu vaccinations in late October or early November, as the country recorded its 20th death from the illness.
The first shipment of swine flu vaccine is expected to arrive in New Zealand early next month and vaccinations are likely to start early next year, officials said yesterday.
The government of Nicaragua has declared a 60-day health emergency because of an upswing in the number of cases and deaths.
Health Minister Guillermo Gonzalez told the Radio Ya station that the measure was declared after the number of accumulated cases rose to 840 cases this month, and four women have died since Aug. 14.
Australia yesterday said a massive swine flu vaccination program would start in October, but warned of a possible “second wave” of infections in the hard-hit country.
Chief medical officer Jim Bishop said he was hopeful A(H1N1) influenza had peaked, with 147 related deaths and almost 35,000 cases, but cautioned it could surge again.
However, the swine flu could re-emerge next year in a more deadly form, an expert said on Thursday.
“We should get through the winter relatively easily, I don’t think the virus will mutate before then,” said John Oxford, a professor of virology at Britain’s St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Hospital.
“For the moment, the virus is running around the world finding lots of young people and infecting them. It is doing very nicely, thank you, why should it change?” he said by telephone.
“Once the virus has infected about a third of the world’s population — which is what we expect — it will find less ‘susceptibles.’ That is when mutants will have a selective advantage,” he said.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS