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.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
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