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Mexico says flu ebbing, lowers alert level

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-05 00:10

MEXICO CITY – Mexican officials lowered their flu alert level in the capital on Monday and said they will allow cafes, museums and libraries to reopen this week. World health officials weighed raising their pandemic alert to the highest level.

Lorena Balderas, 21, lies in bed while under observation in the area where people suspected to have contracted the swine flu virus are treated at the Naval hospital in Mexico City, Sunday, May 3, 2009. [Agencies]

Mexican officials declared the epidemic to be waning, announcing that Wednesday will conclude a five-day closure of nonessential businesses that was called to stop the spread of the new virus. Health officials need to finish inspecting schools before students can return to class.

Special coverage: A（H1N1） Influenza Outbreak Related readings:  68 quarantined in Shanghai after flight from Mexico with flu case  Mexico flight passengers quarantined  US carriers cutting service to Mexico  Mexico-bound flight canceled

Global health experts however said it was too early for countries to lower their guard, but there were no imminent plans to raise the pandemic alert level.

In New York on Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the World Health Organization "has no plan to raise the alert level to 6 at this moment." WHO chief Margaret Chan also told the UN General Assembly by videolink from Geneva that "we are not there yet."

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais published Monday, Chan implied the agency might raise its alert. She played down the impact of going to level 6, saying she was concerned about causing unnecessary panic.

WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said the comments appeared to be consistent with what the global body has said all along.

"We have consistently said a pandemic is imminent. It's only a matter of time before we move to phase 6 unless the virus suddenly becomes weaker and dies off," he said.

According to the WHO's pandemic phase definitions, being in level 5 means the agency believes a global outbreak is "imminent." Though Mexican authorities believe the outbreak may have peaked, WHO maintains it is still too early to tell if the outbreak is slowing down.

WHO also emphasized that a pandemic did not necessarily mean the disease was particularly deadly. The past two pandemics - in 1957 and 1968 - have been relatively mild. WHO said that the term pandemic refers to a disease's geographic spread - in all countries worldwide - rather than its severity.

While Mexico began its first steps toward normalcy, the virus spread to Colombia in the first confirmed case in South America, where flu season is about to begin. More cases were confirmed in North America and Europe - including Portugal's first - with the total number sickened worldwide rising to more than a 1,000 people, according to health and government officials.

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