GENEVA: The H1N1 virus has killed more than 700 people worldwide since emerging in April, and countries could consider closing schools to slow its spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.
The WHO, whose previous death toll was 429 two weeks ago, also said it was up to national health authorities to decide what measures they impose to slow the spread of the new strain.
British researchers writing in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases said Monday that governments needed to draft plans for when and how to close schools if the swine flu pandemic worsens.
“School closure is one of the mitigation measures that could be considered by countries,” WHO spokeswoman Alphaluck Bhatiasevi told a news briefing. “As WHO has been saying, different countries would be facing the pandemic at different levels at different times. So it is really up to countries to consider what mitigation measures suit them in regard to the situation in individual countries.”
France is among the countries reportedly considering school closures, though decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis, Le Parisien daily reported. France’s Education Ministry has already prepared nearly 300 hours of educational programming for radio and television to allow those affected by school closures to follow their lessons, the newspaper said.
The WHO, which declared an H1N1 influenza pandemic on June 11, said last week it was the fastest-moving pandemic ever and now pointless to count every case.
It told countries to stop reporting individual cases and concentrate on mitigation measures and detecting any unusual patterns of disease or spike in rates of absenteeism.
