Geneva, New Delhi, Beijing, Bali: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday the swine flu cases around the world rose to 236 from 148. The WHO said most of the fresh confirmed cases were from Mexico.
The WHO raised its alert level to Phase 5, the second highest, indicating a pandemic may be imminent. The Phase 5 alert - the first ever - activates added efforts to produce a vaccine.
India not taking any chances
Meanwhile, India is also not taking any chances. Even though no suspected cases of swine flu have been reported, the Health Ministry is upgrading all facilities.
The government is looking to swiftly increase the output of antiviral drugs to tackle swine flu; it would be 10 million doses, from one million right now.
The stockpile will be decentralised and despatched in every state.
Around 50,000 passengers, who have come in from the affected countries, are being tracked down and tested, and will be kept under observation for the next seven days.
Passengers are already being screened at the Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bangalore international airports. The focus right now is to prevent the entry of the deadly flu into the country.
Global flu fight
Other countries are also guarding against the swine flu menace. The Chinese are using precision testing equipments like thermal scanners at airports to detect the flu at the very early stages. In China, the deadly SAARS and bird flu had killed thousands few years ago.
Indonesia too is using thermal scanners at the airports to detect body temperatures of passengers. Most of the countries of the Asia Pacific region have seen several outbreaks of deadly fevers in the recent past.