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The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent.
WHO says the phase 5 alert means there is sustained human-to-human spread in at least two countries.
Swine Influenza
It also signals that efforts to produce a vaccine will be ramped up. WHO has confirmed human cases of swine flu in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain.
Mexico and the United States have reported deaths.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan made the decision today to raise the alert level from phase 4 — signifying transmission in only one country — after reviewing the latest scientific evidence on the outbreak.
Dr. Chan urged international cooperation and encouraged countries to view the raised alert level as an opportunity to ramp up efforts to contain the virus.
"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," Dr. Chan said.
Meanwhile in Ontario, there are three new confirmed cases, bringing the provincial total to seven. British Columbia also reported three new cases, bringing the total to 19 confirmed cases in Canada.
Officials at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control say all the new cases are in the Vancouver region.They say five of the six cases were people who were travelling recently in Mexico, but health officials say the transmission link in one of case is unclear.
One person in B.C. was hospitalized overnight but nationwide, all cases have been described by health officials as mild.
Dr. David Williams, Ontario's acting Chief Medical Officer of Health, said at a media briefing that two of the individuals who tested positive on Wednesday recently travelled to Mexico. He said it is still not clear whether the third individual visited Mexico.
All seven individuals in the province live in the suburbs surrounding Toronto, are in their twenties and suffered mild symptoms.
"I'm not surprised at all," with the number of cases, Dr. Williams told reporters.
"I expect some more as the days go on."
Earlier in the day, the World Health Organization said it was moving closer to raising the pandemic alert level once again as the swine flu outbreak continued to hop from one country to the next and claimed its first life outside of Mexico, the epicentre of the disease.
"It's clear that the virus is spreading and we don't see any evidence of this slowing down at this point," Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO acting assistant director-general, said in a conference call from Geneva.
Government officials confirmed the first U.S. death from the new H1N1 swine flu today - a 23-month-old child who died in Texas. It is the first death from swine flu reported outside Mexico, the country hardest hit by the influenza outbreak.
"This is quite sad news," Dr. Richard Besser, the acting director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control, told a morning teleconference.
"As a parent, as a pediatrician, I am moved by this and my heart goes out to the family in Texas who is dealing with this situation."
The official number of those infected in the United States climbed to 91 today from 64 the day before, and there are now confirmed cases in 10 states, up from five on Tuesday. But, said Dr. Besser, those numbers are out of date even as they are being released.
Germany confirmed its first cases of swine flu today: a 22-year-old woman hospitalized in Hamburg, a man in his late 30s at a hospital in Regensburg, north of Munich, and a 37-year-old woman from another Bavarian town. All three had recently returned from Mexico. And Austria health ministry said a 28-year-old woman who recently returned from a month-long trip to Guatemala via Mexico City and Miami has the virus but is recovering.
The WHO raised the pandemic level to 4 on Monday, the first time since the system was devised four years ago. Level 6 is a full-blown pandemic.
Swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people in Mexico and sickening over 2,400 there. The city's mayor said the outbreak seemed to be stabilizing and he was considering easing the citywide shutdown that closed schools, restaurants, concert halls and sports arenas.
But as fear and uncertainty continued around the world, nations took all sorts of precautions, some more useful than others.
Britain closed a school after a 12-year-old girl was found to have the disease. Egypt slaughtered all its pigs and the central African nation of Gabon became the latest nation to ban pork imports, despite assurances that swine flu was not related to eating pork.
Cuba eased its flight ban, deciding just to block flights coming in from Mexico. Asian nations greeted returning airport travellers with teams of medical workers and carts of disinfectants, eager to keep swine flu from infecting their continent.
And in the House of Commons in Ottawa, the human resources director said extra cleaning is being done in high-traffic areas and places where the public can visit, just in case. Additional hand sanitizer stations are also being installed.
Both Canada and United States this week issued advisories, urging that all unnecessary trips to Mexico be cancelled or postponed.
Until today's death in the United States, the cases outside of Mexico have been relatively mild. The swine flu virus has similar symptoms as seasonal influenza, including fever and joint aches.
Dr. Fukuda said health officials are at a loss to explain why those in Mexico are suffering more severe symptoms than others elsewhere in the world.
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