Climate has no impact on swine flu virus: WHO

The World Health Organisation has said the swine flu virus is not affected by any variation in the temperature.

Citing cumulative report of swine flu cases and deaths from different nations around the globe, WHO said the H1N1 virus has infected people from several countries with varying temperatures.

As per a WHO report, more than 18 lakh laboratories have confirmed cases of the pandemic influenza and nearly 1,800 deaths registered from across 177 countries and territories around the globe.

Dr SJ Habayeb, WHO representative in India, said, "H1N1 virus has no relation to weather. Swine flu cases have been heard from countries with cold and hot temperatures."

Citing example, he said, "Swine flu cases have been equally reported from Texas, New York and California, though the temperature varies in all the three places. Texas is warmer than New York."

According to WHO, over 1.8 lakh confirmed swine flu cases have been reported across the world. Over one lakh people have tested positive for the virus in North and South America, where more than 1,500 deaths have been reported.

This has been followed by European countries with over 32,000 people testing positive for the virus and more than 50 deaths reported from all over the continent.

The third most affected area is the western pacific region with over 27,000 cases already testing positive for H1N1 and 50 deaths reported from there.

It is followed by the South-East Asian region. Nearly 13,000 positive cases and 106 deaths have already been reported from different countries in this region.

Finally, the Mediterranean region has over 2,000 cases and eight deaths have been reported from there so far.

Dr Jai P Narain, director, Communicable Diseases, WHO, said, "If cases are being reported in hot and humid climate like India, the same is also being heard about in cold country like Australia."

"All depends on the immune capacity of the people. All five continents have been affected equally," he said.