Countries should be ready for more serious H1N1 flu infections and more deaths from the newly discovered virus, Reuters cited World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan as saying today. The highly contagious strain must be closely monitored in parts of Asia, Africa and South America where the winter season is beginning in case it mixes with seasonal flu and mutates in "unpredictable ways," Chan told the closing session of her United Nations agency's annual congress. "In cases where the H1N1 virus is widespread and circulating within the general community, countries must expect to see more cases of severe and fatal infections," she said. "We do not at present expect this to be a sudden and dramatic jump in severe illness and deaths." In the WHO's latest tally, the strain has infected more than 11,000 people in 42 countries and killed 86. Chan told the end of the week-long World Health Assembly that poorer countries need to quickly improve their monitoring for the new flu, which has caused mainly mild symptoms in most patients but could become more serious as it spreads. "This is a subtle, sneaky virus," she said. "We have clues, many clues, but very few firm conclusions." Another senior WHO official, Keiji Fukuda, later told a news conference the United Nations agency was rethinking its criteria for declaring a full H1N1 pandemic is underway to factor in its severity as well as its geographical spread. "What we are looking for and what we will be looking for is something, events, which signify a really significant increase in risk of harm to people," said Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director-general. The WHO's global flu alert is currently at level 5 out of 6, meaning that a pandemic is "imminent."
