Swine Flu, World Health Organization | featured news

The World Health Organization said on Friday that tests had shown the current seasonal vaccine against flu would have little effect against the new H1N1 strain.

Genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter. As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza -- at least in its current form -- isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

Cases of swine flu were confirmed early today in Israel and New Zealand, the first definitive proof that the dangerous new virus has spread to the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, but international health officials said there was little point in imposing border or travel restrictions or otherwise trying to contain the virus.