WHO changes name of flu virus strain

The World Health Organisation, bowing to pressure from meat industry producers and concerned governments, said yesterday it would refer to a deadly new virus strain as influenza A (H1N1) not swine flu.

"From today, WHO will refer to the new influenza virus as 'influenza A (H1N1)'," it said in a brief announcement posted on its www.who.int/en/ website.

It derives from a swine influenza virus but the new strain has been found only in people. No pigs have been confirmed to be sick with it.

WHO has consistently said the disease cannot be caught from eating pork if it is prepared properly.

"There is also no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products," it said on its website yesterday.

The name of the flu led several countries to slap bans on imports of pork from Mexico and the US, where the outbreak first appeared, and authorities in Egypt have ordered a cull of pigs.

US and European food industries and governments had been calling for a change in name to remove the link in people's minds between the disease and pigs.