Health Minister Ewa Kopacz said Poland is fully prepared for the flu pandemic

Despite reassurances and appeals for calm regarding the spread of swine flu, Poles were on edge last week. The outbreak dominated the media and conflicting reports emerged as to whether the virus had yet appeared in the country.

Worries grew when Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), raised the institution’s pandemic alert level from phase 4 to 5, the second-highest phase of “widespread human infection,” and stated that all countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans.

“Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world,” she said in a statement.

However, Dr Chan said that the world was better prepared for a pandemic than ever. “For the first time in history, we can track the evolution of a pandemic in real-time,” she said. “At this stage, effective and essential measures include heightened surveillance, early detection and treatment of cases, and infection control in all health facilities.”

Poland prepared?

In Poland, Health Minister Ewa Kopacz allayed fears that the country was unprepared for the arrival of the virus. “The fifth phase means to be fully prepared, and we are fully prepared,” she told TVN24 last Thursday. “Our laboratories are ready. We have a reserve supply of medicine. The emergency services are on standby 24 hours a day. We’ll operate as we have until now, according to the pandemic plan.”

“We’re prepared for the virus in Poland,” Tomasz Misztal, deputy spokesman from the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate, assured WBJ. “As for the cases that that Polish media have publicized here, I can say that the person from the case in Elbląg is uninfected. As for the two cases in Warsaw, [the absence of the virus] will be confirmed in the coming days. The likelihood of it being the A/H1N1 virus is practically zero.”

“Anyone who feels ill and has symptoms of the sickness, such as a high temperature, a feeling of weakness, coughing or a lack of appetite should go directly to the doctor,” he continued. “We encourage the practice of basic hygiene [during this uncertain period]. That is, washing one’s hands with soap.”

State of global health

The first documented case of the virus surfaced on April 2 when Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova confirmed that a four-year-old boy from Veracruz state in Mexico – who has since recovered – had contracted swine flu in late March or early April.

As WBJ went to press, the WHO was citing 257 cases of swine influenza, reported by nine countries. In the US, 109 laboratory-verified cases (one death) had been confirmed, while Mexico had confirmed 97 cases (seven deaths). Austria, Canada, Ge-rmany, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom had also reported confirmed cases with no deaths.

As of press time, there were no confirmed cases in Poland.