Latest update: 30/04/2009 

- European Union - health - Mexico - USA - WHO


Netherlands reports first case, EU health chief warns against panic
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The day after the WHO raised its official alert level to phase 5, the EU's health commissioner urged Europeans not to panic over the spread of the H1N1 virus (or swine flu), even while Dutch officials reported the first case in their country.

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AFP - The EU's health commissioner said Thursday that Europe "should not panic" over the spread of swine flu even though the World Health Organisation has warned of an imminent pandemic.

"We have to be careful, we have to exercise vigilance, we should not panic, we have to be prepared," Androulla Vassiliou told journalists as she arrived for an emergnecy meeting of EU health ministers in Luxembourg.

With a growing number of cases being anounced in Europe, the ministers were meeting to flesh out a common response to the flu crisis amid divisions over whether to ban flights to Mexico, where the outbreak first emerged.

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