WHO: Swine flu traveling at 'almost unheard of speed'

World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan says that the H1N1 swine flu virus travels at an 'unbelievable' speed and that of those people it has killed an alarming percentage have been young and otherwise entirely healthy.

As viruses go, the H1N1 swine flu virus is a fast-moving animal and one that is particularly cruel. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, characterized the swine flu bug for France's La Monde daily in an interview - warning that the virus travels at a speed that is four times faster than other viruses. "This virus travels at an unbelievable, almost unheard of speed," Chan said, according to AFP. "In six weeks it travels the same distance that other viruses take six months to cover." It is moving at a pace that far outstrips our ability to get a vaccine into the world market, and of those people that it killed to date 40 percent were young and considered in otherwise good health. "Sixty percent of the deaths cover those who have underlying health problems," Chan said, according to AFP. "This means that 40 percent of the fatalities concern young adults -- in good health -- who die of a viral fever in five to seven days." The World Health Organization has also alerted worldwide health officials that the H1N1 swine flu virus is now the dominant flu strain in the world. "Chan underlined that emergency and healthcare services in several countries had come under strain and stressed that resources allocated for cancer patients and those suffering from heart disease should not be diverted," AFP reported. "All governments must prepare for the worst," she said.