Brussels, 29/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - According to indications provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, the number of confirmed cases of “Mexican” or “American” flu was stable, at 4.00pm on Wednesday 29 April, at 13 in the European Union with 5 in the United Kingdom, 3 in Germany, 4 in Spain and 1 in Austria. At this stage, all confirmed cases present a moderately pathogenic infection. All persons infected had been exposed to the virus during a stay in Mexico recently.
Taking the world as a whole, about 3,000 suspected cases are currently being analysed. There are 64 confirmed cases in the United States, 33 in Mexico, 13 in Canada, 11 in New Zealand, 2 in Israel and 1 in Costa Rica. Although experts know that the flu develops in waves, the second often being more severe than the first, this new form of virus A (H1N1) seems to be moderately pathogenic. At this stage, its severity does not seem to exceed that of an ordinary flu, says Dr Angus Nicoll, who also stresses that the number of deaths imputed to the flu is beginning to fall (after analyses contradicting the first figures). The only cases of secondary transmission (after returning from a stay in Mexico) have been reported in the United States. There has been only one death in the United Sates, that of a child living in Mexico but who was taken to the United States already ill. The question raised at the WHO today is that of knowing whether the epidemic will fade out or grow stronger, either immediately or as a fresh wave, and what measures are appropriate with this in mind, mainly concerning the next vaccination campaign. (O.J./transl.jl)