DUSHANBE, June 9, 2009, Asia-Plus — A meeting to discuss measures to prevent spread of the swine influenza to the CIS states has opened in Moscow today morning, according to the CIS Executive Committee press service.
Organized by a decision made at the last session of the council of the CIS heads of government that was held in the Kazakh capital Astana, the event has brought together representatives from Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to discuss ways to prevent spread of a new strain of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1.
The results will be reported to the next session of the CIS Economic Council that will be held in Chisinau, Moldova on June 19, 2009.
The outbreak began in Mexico, where early reports indicated a surge of cases that had already killed at least 81 people by April 26. As a result, WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressed concern that this could become a worldwide flu pandemic, with WHO raising its alert level to Phase 5 out of the six maximum.
