Updated on Thursday, November 05, 2009, 20:47 IST Tags:swine flu, WHO

Geneva: The World Health Organisation on today urged people not to drop their guard over the swine flu pandemic and insisted on the value of vaccination despite the broadly mild symptoms of the virus.

"At the WHO we remain quite concerned about the pattern we are seeing, particularly because a sizeable number of people do develop serious complications and death," said Keiji Fukuda, special adviser on pandemic.

"Again, we are seeing most of this develop in people who are younger than 65 years, a picture which is different from seasonal influenza," he explained.

Fukuda reiterated that the cases of serious complications were largely found among the chronically ill, pregnant women as well as some otherwise healthy younger people.

He also countered signs of public scepticism about the vaccine revealed by surveys in several countries, despite the resurgence of swine flu in the northern hemisphere with the onset of the colder season.

"WHO believes that these vaccines are very useful against the pandemic virus," Fukuda said in a telephone conference.

Vaccination against A(H1N1) influenza has now started in more than 20 countries and were demonstrably safe, according to the WHO.

"What we are seeing is that these vaccines are highly safe and have been received by a significant number of people without any problems," Fukuda said.

Swine flu has differed from seasonal flu in persisting in the northern hemisphere during the summer period.

Bureau Report