About Pandemic Levels
About the World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a part of the United Nations that was set up in 1948 to coordinate and overlook global health issues. It is now supported by more than 160 countries and the organization has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
WHO and swine flu
The World Health Organization has taken a central role in monitoring the progress of swine flu. It is their assessment of the progression of swine flu that determines the pandemic state of alert.
The use of pandemic levels is a simple yet practical way to alert all countries about the current state of a possible global pandemic. The levels are primarily an indication of how infectious a disease is and focuses on its rate of transmission, not on its mortality rate.
Pandemic levels are often used by nations to gauge their level of preparedness in relation to the spread of a disease.
What do pandemic levels mean?
The different phases are simple to understand and they are as follows;- Phase 1 - There are no animal viruses currently in circulation that are causing infections in humans.
- Phase 2 – An animal virus is known that can cause human infection and is considered to be a potential pandemic threat.
- Phase 3 – Evidence of limited human-to-human transmission. But not yet known if the virus has the ability to cause a pandemic.
- Phase 4 – Human-to-human transmission able to cause ‘community-level outbreaks’. Pandemic risk increased but still not known if a pandemic is inevitable.
- Phase 5 – Human-to-human spread of the virus in at least two countries in one WHO region. Pandemic is now deemed as imminent.
- Phase 6 – Characterized by community-level outbreaks in at least on other country in a different WHO region from those of Phase 5.