# 3300
For well over a month reporters, bloggers, scientists, and even some public health officials from around the world have called into question the testing guidelines used in Europe to detect the novel H1N1 virus.
The criteria in most countries was that in order to be tested, a symptomatic patient had to of recently returned from Mexico, America, or Canada – or have been exposed to someone diagnosed with the virus.
This policy very neatly excluded exactly the people you’d want to test to see if community spread of the virus was taking place.
People who were sick, but had not traveled abroad.
Admittedly, if you actually looked for community spread, there is always a danger you might find it.
So one can understand their reluctance.
Now, after a month of media criticism and a considerable loss in faith of the numbers being reported, the WHO today has urged:
- That all countries intensify surveillance for unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia.
Over the past month I’ve featured a number of calls to do exactly that, including:
New Scientist: The Invisible Pandemic
H1N1 In Europe: Hiding In Plain Sight?
A Yank From Oxford
Only a few hours after the WHO IHR meeting ended, we get this report from Reuters indicating that EU countries will now broaden their criteria for testing for the H1N1 virus.
EU countries broadening H1N1 flu tests: officials
Fri Jun 5, 2009 5:51pm BST
By Michael Kahn
LONDON (Reuters) - European Union countries have begun casting a wider net when deciding who to test for the new H1N1 flu virus as health authorities are concerned they may have been missing cases, officials said.
Flu experts began emergency talks on Friday to discuss the spread of the H1N1 virus and introducing a severity index into the World Health Organization's top level of pandemic alert.
The effects of the new flu have been mainly mild apart from in Mexico, where it is known to have killed 103 people.
Testing strategies for the most part had relied on looking for cases of the so-called swine flu among travelers returning from affected countries and their close contacts, European and British health officials said.
But that could mean some people may not have been tested for the new virus even if they showed symptoms.
“I'm shocked, shocked to find that we may have been missing swine flu cases in Europe!” – Captain Renault (Casablanca)
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