Eight major world sports unions have announced joint measures in the fight against Mexican flu.

They include the world football union FIFA, the Volleyball union FIVB and the swimming union FINA. At a meeting in the Swiss city of Lausanne, the unions agreed that athletes infected with the H1N1 virus cannot take practice sports for seven days and must be immediately isolated from their team mates to prevent further infections.

The eight unions say a general vaccination for all athletes is unnecessary, but added that international matches or tournaments might have to be postponed. In addition to the FIFA, the FIVB and the FINA, the IIHF (ice hockey) the IHF (handball) the FIBA (basketball) the IBAF (baseball) and the ICC (cricket) also took part in the talks.

Photo: H1N1 warning sign in South Korea (Flickr/Paul in Uijeongbu)