A senior United Nations official has warned that the ongoing swine influenza outbreak will affect the already fragile global financial markets.

Sha Zukang, UN undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, made the remark at the 2009 UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Regional Ministerial Meeting on Wednesday in Beijing.

"The current swine flu outbreak, apart from its direct human costs, will impact on the financial markets, trade, travel as the world confronts its most severe financial crisis and economic downturn since the Great Depression of 1929," Sha said.

As the swine flu outbreak, which originated in North America, had become a new center of global concern, Sha said he worried multiple crises would be superimposed on each other, making recovery more complicated and difficult.

The outbreak could overwhelm health systems of poor countries, he said.

Ten countries around the world have reported confirmed human swine flu cases. Mexico, the worst affected, said the disease was suspected of killing 159 people.

The outbreak raised questions about response and preparedness, and nations with high health literacy would find it easier to respond, Sha said.

As a former Chinese diplomat, Sha said he felt especially privileged as a Chinese citizen to note the energetic engagement of China with the UN and the ECOSOC on issues of global public health.

China, the most populous country, has no reported swine flu cases.

"This is an area where China has historically taken major initiatives and made significant advances for the health of its people," he said.

More than 200 delegates of health departments, policy makers, medical experts and medical companies from the Asia and Pacific region gathered at the meeting.

All the speakers at the meeting, including Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu, did not stay to answer questions. Minister Chen's swift and silent departure even caused a chaos as cameramen jostled for a picture.

The minister said in his speech at the meeting that Chinese government had given great attention to the outbreak and taken active measures to cope with the global health concern.

In addition to inspection and quarantine at customs, disease control and medical care, health authorities should particularly spread prevention knowledge among the public to raise awareness and self-protection, he said.

China endured an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which claimed hundreds of lives in the spring and summer of 2003.

"China's experience in previous emergencies has been extremely useful for preparedness of the health system and also other governmental sectors to address UN " Dr. Ala Alwan, Assistant Director General of the World Health Organization told Xinhua on Wednesday.

However, Zeng Guang, the chief epidemic scientist with Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has said that prevention of swine flu is more difficult than SARS.

The most important task was blocking transmission routes, and all the countries should support Mexico, the United States and other reporting countries to deal with the common threat, Zeng said in an interview posted on the Health Ministry's website.

Zeng suggested the public maintain very simple prevention measures, such as proper ventilation indoors, frequent hand washing and no public spitting, which proved effective during the SARS crisis.