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Israel PM Netanyahu Holds Swine Flu Assessment, WHO Readies For Pandemic
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Joel Leyden Jerusalem, Israel ---- June 10, 2009 ...... Part of the following was communicated by the Israel Prime Minister's media adviser and the Israel Government Press Office to the Israel News Agency. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Wednesday), 10.6.09, convened a meeting to assess the situation regarding swine flu. Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, Deputy Finance Minister Yitzhak Cohen, Prime Minister's Office Director-General Eyal Gabai, Health Ministry Director-General Avi Yisraeli and other senior officials also attended the meeting. Israel Health Ministry representatives briefed participants on the development of swine flu in the country and around the world, and on the methods for dealing with it. The various ministry representatives emphasized the concerns regarding additional flu strains that are liable to break out around the world and discussed proposed methods for dealing with the most virulent strains. Prime Minister Netanyahu decided to adopt the option of immediately ordering vaccines should a virulent strain break out in the future, in order to provide a rapid medical response in real time. Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear the State of Israel must look towards the future and prepare itself for all possible scenarios just as many other countries are doing. The World Health Organization is now preparing to declare a swine flu pandemic, a move that could trigger both the large-scale production of vaccines and questions about why the step was delayed for weeks as the virus continued to spread. On Wednesday, WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan quizzed eight countries with large swine flu outbreaks to see if a pandemic, or global epidemic, should be declared. After Chan's teleconference, the agency announced that an emergency meeting with its flu experts would be held Thursday. Since swine flu first emerged in Mexico and the United States in April, it has spread to 74 countries around the globe. On Wednesday, WHO reported 27,737 cases including 141 deaths. Most cases are mild and require no treatment. The world is in phase 5 of WHO's pandemic alert scale, meaning a global outbreak is imminent. Moving to phase 6, the highest level, means a pandemic has begun. If that declaration is made, it will push drugmakers to fast-track production of a swine flu vaccine. If a global outbreak is announced, countries would likely activate their own pandemic preparedness plans if they haven't already. That could mean devoting more money to health services or imposing measures like quarantines, school closures, travel bans and trade restrictions — some of which WHO opposes. According to WHO's own pandemic criteria, a global outbreak means a new flu virus is spreading in at least two world regions. One flu expert said WHO's pandemic declaration would mean little in terms of how countries are responding to the outbreak. "The writing has been on the wall for weeks," said Chris Smith, a flu virologist at Cambridge University, adding he didn't know why WHO had waited so long to declare a pandemic. "WHO probably doesn't want people to panic, but the virus is now unstoppable."
The AP contributed to the above story.
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