World Health Organization Warns Swine Flu Threatening to Become Pandemic

"Global health authorities warned Wednesday that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic, and the virus spread farther in Europe even as the outbreak appeared to stabilize at its epicenter. A toddler who succumbed in Texas became the first death outside Mexico. New cases and deaths finally seemed to be leveling off in Mexico, where 160 people have been killed, after an aggressive public health campaign. But the World Health Organization [WHO] said the global threat is nevertheless serious enough to ramp up efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus. 'It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic,' WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in Geneva. 'We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them.' It was the first time the WHO had declared a Phase 5 outbreak, the second-highest on its threat scale, indicating a pandemic could be imminent. The first U.S. death from the outbreak was a Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family and died Monday night at a Houston hospital. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius predicted the child would not be the last U.S. death from swine flu. The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity.