The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic threat level one notch, as more cases of swine flu become known. In Mexico, officials say 149 people have died from influenza, but only twenty-six of the deaths have been confirmed to be swine flu. Nearly 2,000 people have been hospitalized with serious pneumonia. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control has doubled its number of confirmed US cases to forty-eight. Cases have also been confirmed in Canada, Spain, Britain and Israel, but no deaths have been reported outside Mexico.

Flu expert Dr. John McCauley: “I think we are facing a danger of pandemic for the following reasons. One, this is a new virus that we haven’t — that humans have not seen before. We’ve not come across a virus exactly like this. We have seen other H1N1s, but not this particular variant. And so, it’s a new virus to which humans appear to have no significant immunity. Secondly, it is spreading human to human. And so, these are the hallmarks of a virus that could become a pandemic virus.”