Swine flu threat raised after Mexico death toll hits 152

The pandemic threat level for swine flu was raised last night after the death toll in Mexico rose to 152, the number of cases in the US doubled and the first infections were confirmed in Britain. The swine flu virus first detected in Mexico can no longer be contained and countries should focus on mitigating its effects, a top United Nations official said.The World Health Organisation's emergency committee raised its alert level to four, or two steps short of a full pandemic.

United Nations food inspectors are travelling to Mexico to investigate allegations that industrial pig farms in Mexico were the source of the outbreak. Its chief veterinary officer, Joseph Domenech, told the BBC that rumours that people had been falling ill last month near some intensive pig farms meant the FAO had to act. Elsewhere, the US, Canada, Spain and Britain have confirmed cases of the virus, but not deaths have been reported outside Mexico.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today that the Government would take "all the action necessary" to prevent the spread of the bug. Speaking in the Polish capital, Warsaw, the Prime Minister insisted that Britain was well prepared to deal with a major outbreak. "We have been preparing for this kind of scenario for many years. Britain is among the best prepared countries in the world," he told a joint news conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. "We, together with the World Health Organisation and our partners in Europe and internationally, will continue to take all the urgent action that is necessary to halt the spread of this virus."

The Government's Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said he was 'very concerned' about the ongoing health alert.
Speaking on GMTV this morning he said: "That does not mean that a pandemic is inevitable but we are very concerned. It does seem as if this disease is a new strain of flu, it is one that is spreading quite rapidly from person to person. "So our contingency plans for combating a pandemic in this country have been put into place and we are doing all the things that really we thought we would need to do when this pandemic arrived."

Health Secretary Alan Johnson was due to chair a further meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee on Monday, the Cabinet Office said. In an indication of the seriousness with which the threat is being taken in the UK, the Guardian newspaper has learned that if the situation deteriorates Johnson is considering warning the entire population to set up a support network of friends and relatives, so they can be quickly quarantined at home if they are thought to have symptoms. The friends would then collect medicine on their behalf. He abandoned plans to give this advice as one of his four key messages yesterday in a Commons statement.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children