— CARICOM intensifying efforts to contain spread
THE World Health Organization yesterday declared an influenza pandemic and called on governments to prepare for a long-term battle against an unstoppable flu virus.

With the alert, the Guyana-based Caribbean Community secretariat said the community is intensifying efforts to contain the spread of the H1N1 virus, popularly known as Swine Flu, within the Caribbean.

It said the most recent initiative was strengthening national laboratories with special equipment and relevant training of lab staff to enhance testing capabilities in identifying the virus.

Reuters news agency said the United Nations agency raised its pandemic flu alert to phase 6 on a six-point scale, indicating the first influenza pandemic since 1968 is under way.

“With today’s announcement, WHO moves from an emergency to a longer-term response. Based on past experience, this pandemic will be with us for some months, if not years, to come,” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said in a letter to staff, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

People aged 30-50, pregnant women or people suffering from chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes or obesity are deemed at highest risk, she told a news conference.

Countries from Australia to Chile and the United States are also reporting that the new virus is “crowding out” seasonal flu, becoming the predominant influenza strain, she said.

For now the virus was “pretty stable,” but Chan warned that it could still mutate into a more deadly form, taking on characteristics of the separate H5N1 bird flu virus circulating widely in poultry.

“So it is incumbent on WHO and all members to stay vigilant and alert for the next year or two or even beyond,” she said.

WHO’s top flu expert Keiji Fukuda agreed, saying: “When you’re talking about pandemic influenza, you are talking about a marathon, you are not talking about a sprint.”

Acting on the recommendation of flu experts, the WHO reiterated its advice to its 193 member countries not to close borders or impose travel restrictions to halt the movement of people, goods and services, a call echoed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

A unanimous experts’ decision was based on an overall assessment in the eight most heavily hit countries — Australia, Britain, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the United States — that the virus is spreading in a sustained way in communities, according to Chan.

“Collectively, looking at that, we are satisfied that this virus is spreading to a number of countries and it is not stoppable,” she said.

The CARICOM Secretariat said that at a recent meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) in Jamaica, the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) that of the 362 cases tested to date, 32 were diagnosed as positive in The Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, The Dominican Republic and Jamaica, with one death recorded in the Dominican Republic.

It said the report also recorded some of the initial challenges confronting the regional health sector in fighting this virus. Those included limited human resource capacity, procurement of supplies, lack of reserves, specimen transfer and specimen contamination, however adequate supplies including treatment were now available, the report indicated.

“Against this background, the COHSOD agreed that more vigorous efforts should be made to update existing national plans to a state of ‘readiness’ to strengthen surveillance, and under the guidance of the caucus of Ministers of Health and in consultation with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to establish and sustain a more effective and efficient Caribbean Laboratory Network”, the secretariat said.

It reported that CAREC and the collaborating centre at the University of the West Indies, Mona were designated as two reference laboratory facilities fully equipped to do the testing required for identifying the type of influenza virus.