The news has been dominated by the swine flu health hazard down in Mexico, that has spread to many different countries worldwide.

The swine flu is kind of a misnomer. The actual name is H1N1. The CDC has a website here for information about the H1N1 Flu.

According to the CDC as of today, there have been 226 confirmed cases of H1N1 and 1 confirmed death in the United States.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been 898 confirmed cases world-wide.

The WHO raised the pandemic alert from a 4 to 5.

At what point does WHO consider a pandemic to have started? (from the WHO website)

Phase 6, as defined by the WHO pandemic preparedness guidelines. However, during both phase 5 and phase 6, national and local actions to respond to the outbreak shift from preparedness to response at a global level. The goal of recommended actions during these phases is to reduce the impact of the pandemic on society.

If you want to follow the CDC news on Twitter http://twitter.com/whonews

From reading the reports, I believe the peak has been reached and will start declining as the incubation periods pass.

73,

K4SAC