Swine flu today

*The World Health Organization has raised the pandemic alert level from 4 to 5:

The decision to raise the alert level from phase 4 to phase 5 means there is evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission that is capable of causing community outbreaks in two countries in a single WHO region, Chan told reporters in a teleconference this afternoon. That’s now true in the Americas region, which includes Mexico and the U.S., both of which have had such transmission.

So far there have been 148 reported cases of swine flu in nine countries -- 91 (incuding one death) in the U.S., 26 (including seven deaths) in Mexico, 13 in Canada, five in the United Kingdom, four in Spain, three in Germany, three in New Zealand, two in Israel, and one in Austria -- according to the WHO. But media reports suggest Mexico has accumulated as many as 2,400 cases, over 150 of them fatal.

Will swine flu will escalate into a full-fledged global pandemic, prompting the WHO to raise the alert level to phase 6?* For this to happen, the new virus must take root in multiple countries in multiple regions of the world, said Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director-general for health security and environment.

And that may not be far off, Fukuda suggested: "We think that we are in the process of moving toward there." But he provided no timeline.

**And, of course, after level 6 comes the dreaded "Holy Frickin' Crap" level.

*Today's stats from the CDC:



*Most notable among the numbers above is the first death from the H1N1 flu in the United States. The victim was a 23 month old Mexican boy who was visiting relatives in Texas.

*I'm waiting for Morgan Freeman and Dustin Hoffman to come and save us from this: