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【C1】________by the World Health Organization in 41 years.

The heightened alert【C2】_____an emergency meeting with flu experts in Geneva that convened after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, and rising【C3】_____in Britain, Japan, Chile and elsewhere.

But the epidemic is “【C4】_____” in severity, according to Margaret Chan, the organization’s director general,【C5】__the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the【C6】_____of any medical treatment.

The outbreak came to global【C7】_____in late April 2009, when Mexican authorities noticed an unusually large number of hospitalizations and deaths【C8】__healthy adults. As much of Mexico City shut down at the height of a panic, cases began to【C9】_____in New York City, the southwestern United States and around the world.

In the United States, new cases seemed to fade【C10】_____warmer weather arrived. But in late September 2009, officials reported there was【C11】__flu activity in almost every state and that virtually all the【C12】__tested are the new swine flu, also known as (A) H1N1, not seasonal flu. In the U.S., it has【C13】_____more than one million people, and caused more than 600 deaths and more than 6,000 hospitalizations.

Federal health officials【C14】_____Tamiflu for children from the national stockpile and began【C15】_____ orders from the states for the new swine flu vaccine. The new vaccine, which is different from the annual flu vaccine, is【C16】_____ahead of expectations. More than three million doses were to be made available in early October 2009, though most of those【C17】__doses were of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not【C18】__for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with breathing difficulties, heart disease or several other【C19】__. But it was still possible to vaccinate people in other high-risk groups: health care workers, people【C20】_____infants and healthy young people.

【C9】