Fears Mount as WHO Declares Swine Flu 'Unstoppable'

Agency orders worldwide vaccines
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 14, 2009 5:37 AM CDT
Fears Mount as WHO Declares Swine Flu 'Unstoppable'
A man shows a box of the medication Tamiflu that he was prescribed to take for swine flu outside a hospital in Buenos Aires.   (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Concerns continue to mount about swine flu in the wake of the World Health Organization's declaration that the illness is "unstoppable" and the deaths in Britain of two apparently strong individuals, a 6-year-old girl and a doctor. WHO officials are calling for worldwide vaccines to protect populations before they contract the disease. The CDC estimates at least 1 million people are currently infected in the US alone.

British officials, meanwhile, scrambled today to find clues to the sudden deaths of the physician and girl. “It is very important to keep a careful look for clusters of severe cases that might indicate that a mutated virus has arisen that can be more virulent than the swine flu that has circulated until now,” said one expert.
(More swine flu stories.)

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