the World Health Organization had been
hinting about raising the alert level
for some time but it waited until the
virus had spread across more than one
continent the WH o--'s director-general
Margaret Chan announced that almost
30,000 confirmed cases have been
reported in 74 countries on five
continents we are in the earliest days
of the pandemic the virus is spreading
under a close and careful watch no
previous pandemic has been detected so
early or watched so closely in real time
right at the very beginning so what
happens now dr. chan says the official
declaration of the pandemic means drug
manufacturers will speed up development
of a vaccine although one is not
expected to be available before
September until then doctor Keiji Fukuda
of the w-h-o is telling countries to
maintain vigilance at some point it will
become established in most of the
countries around the world which means
that there will be a lot of people who
will have gotten infected over the next
one or two years and then we'll begin to
see immunity buildup in the population
the decision to raise the virus to the
highest pandemic level came after a
surge of cases in Australia as well as
in some other countries 15 new cases
have been reported in the Philippines
and China is bracing for an increase in
its cases on Thursday health officials
in Hong Kong closed elementary schools
for two weeks after at least a dozen
children were diagnosed with the h1n1
swine flu the pandemic is believed to
have begun in Mexico in April dr. Chan
says Mexico now appears to be stable but
she did not rule out further waves of
infections in that country and in the
southern hemisphere as
seasonal influenza begins there the
virus rise the roofs and this one like
all influenza viruses can change the
rules without rhyme or reason at any
time and experts say they are concerned
that as the virus passes through
populations it could become more severe
Melinda Smith VOA news