No big surprise here…

The World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert Thursday to its highest level, saying the H1N1 virus has spread to enough countries to be considered a global pandemic.

Kindergarten students, some wearing masks, attend school in a residential estate in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Increasing the alert to Phase 6 does not mean that the disease is deadlier or more dangerous than before, just that it has spread to more countries, the WHO said.

“This is an important and challenging day for all of us,” WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a briefing with reporters. “We are moving into the early days of the first flu pandemic of the 21st century.”

As of Wednesday evening, the virus had spread to 74 countries, the health agency said. There were 27,737 confirmed cases and 141 deaths.

The United States had 13,217 cases and 27 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in its weekly update. Cases have been reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

“Further spread is considered inevitable,” Chan said at a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. “The scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met.”

The announcement came after a meeting of the WHO’s Emergency Committee, which has debated since April whether the spread of a novel H1N1 flu virus was fast and widespread enough to warrant a Phase 6 designation.

Source/Full Story: CNN.com

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