New York Times: WHO Says It Is Closer to Declaring Flu Pandemic

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it was moving closer to declaring swine flu a worldwide pandemic.

The disease has reached 64 countries, and there have been dozens or hundreds of cases in several nations outside North America, including Britain, Spain, Japan, Chile and Australia.

The Southern Hemisphere countries are now of chief interest because their winter flu season is just beginning and another strain of the H1N1 virus, widespread last winter, was resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

To raise the flu alert to its highest level, Level 6, the W.H.O. would need to find evidence of widespread “community transmission” — meaning beyond travelers, schools and immediate contacts — on two continents. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s chief of flu, said that finding had not been made.

New York Times: WHO Says It Is Closer to Declaring Flu Pandemic