The United Nations health agency on Wednesday said that the outbreak of swine flu is “moving closer” to becoming a pandemic. World Health Organization flu chief Dr. Keiji Fukuda told reporters that the agency is moving closer to increasing its six-level global warning level to phase 5 indicating widespread human-to-human transmission of swine flu. The alert level is currently at phase 4 which indicates that a pandemic is likely but not inevitable. Meanwhile, Mexico's Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said that her government is acting appropriately in responding to the outbreak. “The government of Mexico has acted with full transparency, with a sense of responsibility not only towards our own citizens, the citizens of Mexico, but also the citizens of the entire world,” Espinosa told the U.N. Security Council during a meeting on unrelated matters. ”I wish to assure all of you that Mexico will continue to act in the same spirit of responsibility and transparency,” she said. The virus emerged late last week in Mexico where up to 159 people have died as a result. The United States is the only other country to have recorded a confirmed death from the virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday confirmed the death of a 23-month-old child in Texas was from swine flu. The toddler was visiting the United States with his family from Mexico. The WHO also confirmed that there are two cases of swine flu in Israel, the first such cases in the Middle East. The WHO has confirmed cases in 8 countries so far—Mexico, Canada, the United States, Britain, Germany, Spain, New Zealand and Israel. There are reported cases in at least 14 other countries.
