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From Kate Killand
LONDON (Reuters) – The world will inevitably face a new flu epidemic and must prepare for the potential destruction that it can cause and not underestimate the risks, the WHO said.
WHO said Monday when it reviewed a global plan to fight the viral disease and took preventative measures before a possible global spread, that the emergence of a new pandemic "has become a matter of time" rather than 'a possibility.
"The threat of pandemic is very present (…) we must be vigilant and ready, the cost of widespread spread of the flu will far exceed the cost of preventive measures," said the director general of the In a statement.
The latest spread of the flu is due to the H1N1 virus, which spread worldwide in 2009 and 2010. Studies have shown that one in five people in the world was infected in the first half of the world. year and that its mortality rate was 0.02%.
World health experts and WHO warn of the risk of more dangerous mutations of influenza viruses and transmission from animals to humans, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
Influenza viruses are numerous and variable and infect about one billion people each year during a period of spread. Of the three million to five million serious cases, between 290,000 and 650,000 die each season.
Vaccines prevent the injuries of some and the World Health Organization recommends annual vaccination, especially for health workers and the most vulnerable to the disease, such as the elderly and children.
The WHO plan, described as the most comprehensive to date, includes measures to protect the population as much as possible from annual influenza epidemics and pandemic preparedness.
The WHO said its two main goals are to improve global surveillance and response capabilities by urging all governments to develop a national influenza control plan and develop better tools for disease control. prevention, surveillance, containment and treatment of diseases, such as vaccines and more effective antiretrovirals.
(Reuters)
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