The World Health Organization (WHO) is declaring a swine flu pandemic, the first global flu epidemic in 41 years, according to NYTimes.com. The organization made its decision based on drastic increases in swine flu cases in Australia, Britain, Japan and Asia. Althought WHO officials will raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, which indicates its lobal spread, they want people to understand that this new rating does not mean that the flu has become more deadly since this latest declaration.
As of Wednesday, 74 countries reported 27,737 cases of the disease, and 141 deaths.– MB