The World Health Organization's Phase 6 pandemic alert is the highest level on the scale that rates the severity of flu outbreaks. The scale ranges from one through six; the sixth phase is characterized as widespread human infection in at least two separate WHO regions of the world.WHO: Current WHO phase of pandemic alert The levels alert governments to plan and implement responses to pandemics.Bloomberg: WHO May Declare Outbreak a Pandemic as Flu Spreads (May 3, 2009)
The WHO raised the pandemic alert level to a level 6 on June 11, 2009. The 2009 swine flu outbreak was the first pandemic influenza since 1968, when the Hong Kong Flu killed about 1 million people.http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/06/11/2009-06-11_who_set_to_declare_level_6_swine_flu_pandemic__first_time_since_1968.html
H1N1 Swine Flu
On April 29, 2009, the WHO increased the pandemic alert to a Phase 5 alert in response to the swine flu outbreak. On May 3, 2009, Michael Ryan, agency director of global response stated, "we have to expect that Phase 6 will be reached; we have to hope that it won't be." Bloomberg: WHO May Declare Outbreak a Pandemic as Flu Spreads (May 3, 2009) The scale, developed in 2005, had not risen above a Phase 3 level since 2007, during the outbreak of the avian flu.Bloomberg: WHO May Declare Outbreak a Pandemic as Flu Spreads (May 3, 2009)
On June 11, 2009, WHO raised the pandemic level to its highest level, level 6. The last global pandemic of influenza was in 1968, when the Hong Kong Flu claimed the lives of about 1 million people worldwide.
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Fast Facts
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The pandemic alert scale was created by the World Health Organization
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Scale was created in 2005
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Highest designation for national preparedness and response
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Phase 1-3 is when there is documented influenza between animals or between humans and animalsWHO: Current WHO phase of pandemic alert
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Phase 4 means there is documented human-to-human transmission that causes outbreaks at a community levelWHO: Current WHO phase of pandemic alert
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Phase 5 occurs when the human-to-human infection is confirmed in at least two counties in one world region of WHO
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Phase 6 is when there are outbreaks in at least two separate regions of the world; this indicates a full pandemic phaseWHO: Current WHO phase of pandemic alert
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Pandemics, in the past, have occurred in "waves," periods of decreased activity followed by a new outbreakWHO: Current WHO phase of pandemic alert
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Swine Flu was raised to a Phase 5 on April 29, 2009
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As of May 4, 2009, 20 countries have reported cases of Swine FluWHO: INFLUENZA A(H1N1): SPECIAL HIGHLIGHTS
