The World Health Organization today rejected criticism that it was too slow in reacting to the outbreak of the swine flu A(H1N1) virus, according to dpa. Mexican officials as well as some media reports have said there was too long a gap between information reaching the organisation that a new influenza was apparently emerging and the WHO's reaction. "Once we knew this illness was caused by a new influenza virus, we moved into operation in a matter of hours," said spokesman Thomas Abrams. "This has been a pretty rapid response." The WHO added that it was conducting internal reviews of its actions. Late Thursday, Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's health security chief, explained that some time delay has be expected when dealing with a new virus. "Of course there is a time delay," he said. "Most diseases do not come out with someone walking around with 'new disease' written on their forehead."
