Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 22-May-2009 05:53 hrs
Taiwanese patients wear face masks as they sit in a hospital waiting room in Taipei. Mexico City Thursday fully lifted all swine flu restrictions imposed on the sprawling metropolis, as global health authorities puzzled over the origins and severity of the A(H1N1) virus. Antoine Flahaut, an epidemiologist and head of the School of Public Health (EHESP) in France, told AFP that the technical elements were in place to move into the pandemic phase.
"But the WHO senses that recommendations which go with that are not adapted to the situation," he explained, pointing to air travel restrictions or advice to wear surgical masks.
Health officials have also been left puzzled over why the elderly appear not to be falling ill at the same rate, with most infections and deaths reported among younger people.
A study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found Thursday that older people may have some kind of immunity to swine flu.
More than 64 percent of US infections have occurred among patients between the ages of five and 24, with just one percent of flu victims aged 65 or older.
One possible explanation is that "older adults might have been in contact a long time ago with a virus related to the one that we see now," said Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health programs at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Adults might have some degree of pre-existing ... antibodies to the H1N1 virus, especially older adults over 60 or 65," she said. — AFP
From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.
No comments:
Post a Comment