The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the highest pandemic threat on June 11, the first time in 40 years, as the swine flu epidemic, which first emerged in April in Mexico, spread around the globe.
The head of the local branch of Russia's consumer watchdog in the Novosibirsk Region, Valery Mikheyev said that WHO had announced the pandemic threat "for the future."
"The situation could become complex as far as the A/H1N1 flu is unpredictable, the strain of this virus could undergo a change with seasonal flu... even with bird flu. This is what the service is frightened of," Mikheyev said.
He added that in the U.K. which has one of the highest numbers of confirmed infections in the world is above the seasonal flu pandemic threshold.
Medical experts fear a new strain spreading quickly among the population.
"There is no objective basis for calling the new H1N1 virus 'highly pathogenic' as fatalities comprise under 1% of all cases. In comparison, fatalities for the bird flu H5N1 virus are around 65%," a professor at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) said.
According to the Russia's watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, there are 208,058 confirmed cases of A/H1N1, with 1,688 fatalities worldwide. The number of confirmed swine flu cases in Russia has reached 55.
