The recent discovery of an outbreak in Chilean turkey farms also raised concerns that swine flu could combine with avian influenza and become a more dangerous virus, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
“The current H1N1 virus strain is a mixture of human, pig and bird [flu] genes and has proved to be very contagious but no more deadly than common seasonal flu viruses,” the Rome-based agency said in a statement.
“However, it could theoretically become more dangerous if it adds virulence by combining with H5N1, commonly known as avian flu, which is far more deadly but harder to pass along among humans,” it said.
The FAO said Chile did not have avian influenza, also known as bird flu, and the turkeys represented the first case of H1N1 among birds.
Around the world at least 2,185 people have died from swine flu, an official from the WHO said yesterday. However a spokesman said the latest figure “understates” the total number of deaths.
Britain and France have received their first batches of swine flu vaccine, officials said on Thursday, as governments began to arm themselves against a second wave of the pandemic in the northern winter.
Doses to combat the pandemic arrived as millions of schoolchildren prepared to return to school in the next two weeks, with concerns that the virus could spread easily between classrooms.
In South Korea, the education ministry announced that all elementary and secondary schoolchildren — 7.5 million students at 11,000 schools — will have their temperature checked daily to combat the spread of H1N1 when they return to school next week.
British and French health officials said the H1N1 vaccine should win licensing approval for distribution in their countries by October.
Belgium said it would get its first doses next month.
Spain said on Thursday it planned to start swine flu vaccinations in late October or early November, as the country recorded its 20th death from the illness.
The first shipment of swine flu vaccine is expected to arrive in New Zealand early next month and vaccinations are likely to start early next year, officials said yesterday.
The government of Nicaragua has declared a 60-day health emergency because of an upswing in the number of cases and deaths.
Health Minister Guillermo Gonzalez told the Radio Ya station that the measure was declared after the number of accumulated cases rose to 840 cases this month, and four women have died since Aug. 14.
Australia yesterday said a massive swine flu vaccination program would start in October, but warned of a possible “second wave” of infections in the hard-hit country.
Chief medical officer Jim Bishop said he was hopeful A(H1N1) influenza had peaked, with 147 related deaths and almost 35,000 cases, but cautioned it could surge again.
However, the swine flu could re-emerge next year in a more deadly form, an expert said on Thursday.
“We should get through the winter relatively easily, I don’t think the virus will mutate before then,” said John Oxford, a professor of virology at Britain’s St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Hospital.
“For the moment, the virus is running around the world finding lots of young people and infecting them. It is doing very nicely, thank you, why should it change?” he said by telephone.
“Once the virus has infected about a third of the world’s population — which is what we expect — it will find less ‘susceptibles.’ That is when mutants will have a selective advantage,” he said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
RSS