The outbreak of swine flu that was first detected in Mexico was declared a global epidemic on June 11 , 2009. It is the first worldwide epidemic【B1】______by the World Health Organization in 41 years.

The heightened alert【B2】___an emergency meeting with flu experts in Geneva that assembled after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, and rising【B3】___in Britain, Japan, Chile and elsewhere.

But the epidemic is”【B4】___“in severity, according to Margaret Chan, the organization’s director general ,【B5】the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the【B6】___of any medical treatment.

The outbreak came to global【B7】___in late April 2009, when Mexican authorities noted an unusually large number of hospitalizations and deaths【B8】healthy adults. As much of Mexico City shut down at the height of a panic, cases began to【B9】___in New York City, the southwestern United States and around the world.

In the United States, new cases seemed to fade【B10】___warmer weather arrived. But in late September 2009, officials reported there was【B11】flu activity in almost every state and that virtually all the【B12】tested are the new swine flu, also known as (A) H1N1 , not seasonal flu. In the U. S. , it has【B13】___more than one million people, and caused more than 600 deaths and more than 6, 000 hospitalizations.

Federal health officials【B14】___Tamiflu for children from the national stockpile and began【B15】orders from the slates for the new swine flu vaccine. The new vaccine, which is different from the annual flu vaccine, is【B16】ahead of expectations. More than three million doses were to be made available in early October 2009, though most of those【B17】doses were of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not【B18】for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with breathing difficulties, heart disease or several other【B19】. But it was still possible to vaccinate people in other high-risk groups; health care workers, people【B20】___infants and healthy young people.

【B15】