The H1N1 swine flu virus has killed more than 700 people worldwide since emerging in April, and countries could consider closing schools to slow its spread, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today.
The WHO, whose previous death toll was 429 two weeks ago, also said it was up to national health authorities to decide what measures they impose to slow the spread of the new strain.
British researchers writing in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases said yesterday that governments needed to draft plans for when and how to close schools if the swine flu pandemic worsens.
"School closure is one of the mitigation measures that could be considered by countries," WHO spokeswoman Alphaluck Bhatiasevi told a news briefing.
"As WHO has been saying, different countries would be facing the pandemic at different levels at different times. So it is really up to countries to consider what mitigation measures suit them in regard to the situation in individual countries."
The UN agency, which declared an H1N1 influenza pandemic on June 11th, said last week it was the fastest-moving pandemic ever and now pointless to count every case.
It told countries to stop reporting individual cases and concentrate on mitigation measures and detecting any unusual patterns of disease or spike in rates of absenteeism.
Some 125,000 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported worldwide as of Tuesday, Ms Bhatiasevi said.
A network of independent experts is doing mathematical modelling studies to project what kind of cost-effective and beneficial mitigation measures countries can implement, according to the spokeswoman.
The WHO is coordinating the group, composed of mathematicians, epidemiologists and virologists, she said.
The new flu strain can be treated by antivirals such as Roche Holding's Tamiflu or GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza, but many patients recover without medical treatment.
Flu experts say at least 1 million people are infected in the United States alone.
Meanwhile four students from University College Cork (UCC) have developed symptoms of swine flu after attending a student union conference in Waterford.
The students contacted the out-of-hours GP service in Cork after returning from the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) conference at the weekend.
Dr Michael Byrne, head of student health services at UCC, said the students gave a history of having contracted the influenza A(H1N1) virus at the gathering but this had not yet been laboratory confirmed.
He said the conference ran from Tuesday to Saturday and the students began to feel unwell on Friday and Saturday.The students isolated themselves in one house and have not returned to the UCC campus, he added.
There are now concerns other students from across the country who attended the conference may also develop symptoms, which are broadly similar to those of seasonal flu.
Latest figures released by the Department of Health indicate a further 11 cases of swine flu were confirmed in the State over the weekend bringing the total number of confirmed cases to date in the Republic to 164. Some 17 of these cases are known to have been transmitted within the country.