"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."
The last previous pandemic occurred in 1968.
As of Thursday, the virus had spread to 74 countries, the health agency
said. There were 28,774 confirmed cases and 144 deaths.
The
United States had 13,217 cases and 27 deaths, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said June 5 in its weekly update. Cases have
been reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto
Rico.
The U.S. death toll is expected be higher when the CDC releases its
latest figures Friday, said Anne Schuchat, director of the National
Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
New England -- particularly Massachusetts -- and the New York and
New Jersey areas have been hit the hardest, Schuchat said Thursday at a
CDC news conference.
The Phase 6 pandemic designation had been widely expected for weeks.
"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."
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