WHO chief arrives at Geneva HQ to oversee handling of deadly Mexico swine flu outbreak

WHO chief to oversee handling of swine flu crisis

GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization arrived in Geneva on Saturday to oversee the agency’s handling of the swine flu outbreak that is believed to have killed dozens of people in Mexico.

Margaret Chan broke off a visit to Washington to return to WHO’s Strategic Health Operation Center in Switzerland, where she was being briefed before an emergency committee meeting later Saturday to consider whether to raise the pandemic alert level or issue travel advisories, spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

At least 62 people have died from severe pneumonia caused by a flu-like illness in Mexico, Hartl said. Some of those deaths have been confirmed as a type of swine flu — labeled A/H1N1 — not previously been seen in pigs or humans.

The virus, which WHO says appears to be able to spread from human to human, has caused alarm in Mexico, where more than 1,000 people have been sickened. Authorities there have closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in a bid to contain the outbreak.

WHO, which has been monitoring the situation since Thursday, said 12 of the Mexican cases have been laboratory confirmed as genetically identical to a swine flu virus detected in California.

U.S. authorities said seven people were infected with swine flu in California and Texas, and all recovered.