Swine flu epidemic not an exaggeration

The World Health Organisation today said,that the swine flu epidemic was not an "exaggeration" and any attempt to label it so would trivialise the deaths of over 17,000 people across the globe due to the disease.

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday said,that the swine flu epidemic was not an "exaggeration" and any attempt to label it so would trivialise the deaths of over 17,000 people across the globe due to the disease.

HT Image

"Any suggestion that the pandemic is an exaggeration is to ignore recent history and science and to trivialise the deaths of over 17,000 people and the many additional serious illnesses experienced by others," Samlee Plianbangchang, Regional Director, World Health Organisation, Regional Office for South-east Asia said in a statement.

Asserting that the world is going through a real pandemic, he said, this current influenza pandemic is a scientifically well documented event in which the emergence and spread of a new influenza virus has caused unusual patterns of disease throughout the world.

"The new virus (H1N1) has led to patterns of death and illness not normally seen in influenza infections. Most of the deaths caused by the pandemic influenza have occurred among younger people, including those who were otherwise healthy," he said.

India has reported nearly 1500 swine flu deaths since the epidemic broke out in the country in May 2009.