WHO warns flu pandemic imminent

By Laura MacInnis and Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Wednesday the world is at the brink of a pandemic, raising its threat level as the swine flu virus spread and killed the first person outside of Mexico, a toddler in Texas.

"Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world," WHO Director General Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva as she raised the official alert level to phase 5, the last step before a pandemic.

"The biggest question is this: how severe will the pandemic be, especially now at the start," Chan said. But she added that the world "is better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in history."

Nearly a week after the H1N1 swine flu virus first emerged in California and Texas and was found to have caused dozens of deaths in Mexico, Spain reported the first case in Europe of swine flu in a person who had not been to Mexico, illustrating the danger of person-to-person transmission.

Both U.S. and European officials have said they expect to see swine flu deaths.

Despite worries that a major flu outbreak could hit the struggling global economy, world stocks rallied on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said the U.S. recession appeared to be easing.

Almost all cases outside Mexico have had mild symptoms, and only a handful have required hospitalization.

"We doubt that the markets will react with the same worry as found during avian flu scares in the past," said Citigroup analyst Tobias Levkovich in New York.

DRUG STOCKPILES

Chan also urged companies who make the drugs to ramp up production. Two antiviral drugs -- Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKlin and Tamiflu, made by Roche AG and Gilead Sciences Inc. -- have been shown to work against the H1N1 swine flu strain.

Drugmakers have donated millions of doses of their drugs to the WHO. She also alerted governments to be ready to distribute stockpiles of their drugs.

Vaccine makers were on standby to begin making a new vaccine if needed.

In Mexico, where up to 159 people have died from the virus and around 1,300 more are being tested for infection, people struggled with an emergency that has brought normal life virtually to a standstill over the past week.

"I'm depressed. I don't understand where this came from, how it spreads, how long it will last or what it will to the economy," said an elderly woman named Licha, sitting on a Mexico City park bench and wearing a surgical mask.

Germany and Austria reported cases of the illness, bringing the number of affected countries to 9.