By raising its pandemic alert level to phase 6 today, The World Health Organization (WHO) has put every continent, country, organization, and individual on official notice. The critical wake-up call has sounded; no more pressing the pause button.
The irony is hard to miss. Much is being discussed and published about the "lessons learned" from the 2009 pandemic of the novel H1N1 influenza. And I expect the World Health Organization (WHO) will (as I did in my last column) finally call it a pandemic any moment now, based on extensive and growing transmission of the novel influenza virus in Australia and Europe.
No, the World Health Organization (WHO) has not declared the novel H1N1 (swine) influenza outbreak a pandemic. It should. And it may. But your next steps need not depend on the WHO raising the pandemic alert level to phase 6. In fact, they shouldn't depend on it.
As the novel H1N1 influenza virus (aka the "swine flu") spreads to more countries and sickens more people, the question invariably arises, when will the World Health Organization (WHO) change the pandemic alert level to phase 6?
The media may have deflected their focused attention away from the novel H1N1 influenza virus (what they've called swine flu) for the moment, but I know you're still on high alert, and with good reason.
After seeing the pandemic alert level sit at phase 3 for years, suddenly witnessing the World Health Organization (WHO) accelerate from phase 3 to phase 5 in mere days feels terribly unnerving. Unfortunately, it's the nature of the beastliterally.
Big news today: The World Health Organization (WHO) ended days of speculation and finally bumped the pandemic alert level to phase 4. What's more, it did so after releasing revamped definitions and meanings yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed 20 more swine influenza cases, all connected to previous cases at a New York City high school, and said federal officials will issue new travel advice urging against nonessential travel to Mexico.
In yesterday's Special Edition, we reported on two potentially alarming developments: a novel swine flu outbreak in California and Texas that had infected seven people, who all recovered; and a much more severe respiratory disease outbreak in Mexico, with 120 reported cases, including 13 deaths.
Reports are emerging rapidly about a new strain of influenza that has infected seven adults and children in the southwest region of the United States. This swine influenza strain of H1N1 is different from the human strain of H1N1, and the current human vaccine would likely offer little protection.
