Mexico and the US have topped the list of 30 countries where laboratory-confirmed human cases of the virus have been reported
The number of confirmed cases of swine flu or A(H1N1) virus has increased to 5,251, with 61 people dead from the disease around the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced on Tuesday.
According to latest WHO update, Mexico and the US have topped the list of 30 countries where laboratory-confirmed human cases of the virus have been reported. Mexico has 2,059 cases with 56 deaths while the US has 2600 with three deaths.
Canada has 330 cases, including one death, while Costa Rica has eight cases, including one death.
"WHO's pandemic alert level remains at Phase 5 – on a six-point warning scale – as it has for the past several days," Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Acting Assistant Director- General for Health Security and Environment said.
"Community-level sustained human-to-human transmission has been documented in North America, in Mexico and in the United States most clearly. We do not see clear evidence of sustained community-level transmission going on in other countries yet," he said.
Dr Fukuda noted that it is possible that the alert level will go up to Phase 6, which would mean that the spread of the virus has become established in another region outside of North America and is spreading at the community level.
The agency said it is mindful of the many travel-related cases that have now been reported from a large number of countries in almost all regions of the world.
WHO is not recommending travel restrictions related to the current outbreak, but individuals who are ill should delay travel plans and returning travelers who fall ill should seek appropriate medical care, the agency noted on its web site.
"This is still unfolding. We are still evaluating the clinical features, the epidemiology and the spread, and we will continue to evaluate what is the impact on both people and countries," Dr Fukuda noted.
He added that much of what is going on now reflects the fact that so much planning and preparedness has gone on for the past few years.
"I do believe that if we had not had all of those preparations, if we had not worked so hard to get information out quickly, if countries had not been thinking about what to do in this kind of situation, in fact we would have had much more confusion and in many ways the severity would have been greater," he stated.
Spain has reported 95 cases, Britain 55, Panama 16, France 13, Germany 12, Italy 9, Brazil 8, Israel and New Zealand 7 each and Japan and El Salvador 4 each.
South Korea, Netherlands and Colombia have 3 each. Sweden and Norway 2 each. China, Hong Kong, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Guatemala, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland 1 each.
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