As A(H1N1) flu infection cases climbing around the world, WHO raised the alert level to the highest——phase 6 and declares A(H1N1) flu pandemic.

Though China is having much less A/H1N1 flu cases compared with other parts of the world, with the lingering memory of SARS outbreak in 2003, Chinese people have shown much concern for this pandemic.

People's Daily Online held an exclusive interview with Dr. Hans Troedsson, WHO's Chief Representative in China on June 15 to find answers to questions from Chinese netizens.

Q: Why we now have the highest alert level, but the actual pandemic situation is just moderate?
HT: we have to remember that the pandemic levels or alert level does not have anything to do with severity. It's about geographical distribution and that what now happen——it's more spread in the world.

Phase 6 is just on the distribution, on the spread of the virus, not the severity of the virus.

The severity has not changed; it's still in mild form outside Mexico and America.

Q: sometimes we hear this virus is very dangerous and sometimes people day this flu may not that dangerous, so how dangerous the virus actually is?
HT: for the moment, the virus seems to be in the mild form. The danger is this new virus could change into a much more severe form through other mutation. Because it's a new strength, people have little immunity, we are all vulnerable. As long as it is a mild form, the world might not be hurt that much. But if it would change into a more severe form, the complications and mortality might increase, that's what we must have to try to prevent and if it happens, be able to protect ourselves as much as possible.

Q: Is there any effective vaccine against A/H1N1?
HT: Not for the moment. Now there is development of a new vaccine, it's already started also here in China. Companies are starting to develop new vaccine. That's not able to be put into use now. The vaccine needs to go through clinical trial, and then it has to go into production. So the earliest we can expect a vaccine available would be September or October. Then we need some time for production to reach full scale.


Q: After WHO raising the alert level to the highest, can countries carry out mandatory quarantine inspections of visitors from infected countries?
HT: We can not. The problem with this infection is that you are spreading the virus before you show any symptoms. Once you are infected, in one or two days you will have no symptoms, and you can actually infect others without any symptoms. That means you can not tell whether you are infectious or not. That's why we can't effectively prevent transmission because we can't detect who might be carrying the virus. If you have symptoms like muscles pain, fever, cough, or sore throat, you continue to spread the virus and of course, in theory, we can confine this person to stay at home or have them quarantine.

Q：Why WHO still has not recommended travel restrictions?
HT: WHO has assessed the situation and found that travel restriction would not prevent further spread. The virus has already spread so much among countries and people, so travel restriction would have no effect in stopping transmission. It would disrupt global trade and global travel.
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