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A World Health Organization (WHO) official announced on Monday that the swine flu pandemic has grown “unstoppable” and that all countries need access to vaccines as seven (7) new deaths were reported coming from Britain, Thailand and the Philippines. As the death toll increases, the WHO official said that a swine flu vaccine should be available by September and that all countries would need to be able to protect themselves.

Health workers should be the top priority for the vaccines since they will be in high demand as people continue to get sick. Pregnant women and anyone over six months old with chronic health problems should be next in the list of priorities, said the WHO official. A special attention should also be given to children since they are considered “amplifiers” of the spread of the virus, especially when gathered in schools.

Despite having a total of 1, 367 patients who recovered from the A(H1N1) or the “swine flu” infections in the Philippines, still it has ranked No. 8 worldwide in terms of confirmed cases, overtaking Argentina and Japan. The World Health Organization (WHO), in its latest pandemic update issued on July 3, showed the Philippines with a total of 1,709 confirmed cases while Japan has 1,466 and Argentina with 1,587.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines ranked first, surpassing Thailand with 1, 414 cases of influenza infections. However, A(H1N1) related deaths in the Philippines are lower with only one case documented since the outbreak of the flu virus in April. The United States still remains as the country with the most number of deaths at 170, followed by Mexico with 119 deaths.

A total of 89,921 cases have already been recorded by WHO, following the discovery of 12,520 newly confirmed cases. These cases are mostly from the US with 6,185, Mexico withe 1,582, Chile with 1,165, United Kingdom with 909 and the Philippines with 848 new cases.

As of today, the total count of confirmed cases of influenza A(H1N1) infections have reached a swelling 392 since its spread a month ago. The first recorded and confirmed case in Davao City, Mindanao is a four-year old boy from one of the towns in Agusan in the Caraga Region who is now being properly treated in isolation at Davao Medical Center.

A nine-year old girl was also admitted in the same hospital who shows symptoms of possible influenza A(H1N1) infection. The result on the examination on the girl’s swab samples is yet to be revealed.

After the World Health Organization declared Pandemic Alert Level 6, the Department of Health declared last night the first community-level outbreak of Influenza A(H1N1) in a village in Jaen town, Nueva Ecija.

The confirmation of 10 more cases of grade school students and a four year-old child  and the infection of 92 others prompted the said declaration made by the DOH.

Dr. Eric Tayag, chief of the National Epidemiology Center (NEC), confirmed the “community-level” transmission of the virus. Doctors and local health officials are still monitoring 57 other students of the Hilera Elementary School for symptoms of the flu virus.

Classes in the school in Barangay Hilera were suspended after the initial outbreak and will remain suspended for 10 more days.

Classes for the elementary and secondary students have started today in private and public schools in Metro Manila and the provinces. However, the start of classes for the College Students will be on June 15, 2009 due to the A(H1N1) flu virus that’s threatening some of the schools in Metro Manila particularly the De Lasalle University in Taft Avenue, Manila and the Far Eastern University in Manila.

Three (3) A(H1N1) confirmed cases were recorded in the De La Salle University which made the total number of cases in the Philippines grow to twenty nine (29). Two of the said students with confirmed A(H1N1) are Japanese exchange students who just came back in the country.

The A(H1N1) virus or most commonly known as the Swine Flu, as how it was referred to early on, is already in the Philippines. As of yesterday (June 1, 2009), the number of persons afflicted with this virus is up to twenty one (21). The alert level is likewise raised to Level 2 by the Department of Health (DOH).

The DOH has been monitoring Two Hundred and Eighty Five (285) patients who showed signs of the influenza virus. These patients are called Cases Under Observation (CUOs) by the DOH. The monitoring started on May 1, 2009 and 21 cases have been laboratory confirmed so far.