World Health Organization Says N1H1 Pandemic Over
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 9:02PMEven if the World Health Organization’s global “swine flu” pandemic alert was lifted today, the international community was “lucky” the N1H1 virus did not mutate into a a more lethal form , says WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan.
“This does not mean that the H1N1 virus has gone away” Dr. Chan told a press conference Tuesday. “We expect the H1N1 virus to take on the behaviour of a seasonal influenza virus and continue to circulate for some years to come.”
“Continued vigilance is extremely important, and WHO has issued advice on recommended surveillance, vaccination, and clinical management during the post-pandemic period.” said Dr. Chan, adding that vaccination continues to be the most cost effective way to protect H1N1 high risk groups.
In the past several months governments started scaling back their public health response to the H1N1 crisis, but WHO officials felt they needed more evidence that there were no out of season outbreaks or changes in the intensity of infection rates before dropping the alert.
Controversy surrounding the organization’s decision to upgrade the H1N1 situation to a pandemic in the summer of 2009 surfaced after a Council of Europe investigation into alleged ties between certain WHO Emergency Committee members and pharmaceutical companies. Chan says the names of its emergency committee members will be released shortly but was unclear if the WHO would continue to disclose the identity of committee members in the future.
Although she agrees there needs to be changes in the guidelines for future pandemic responses, Dr.Chan remains confident elevating the H1N1 status to a pandemic was the right thing to do. “We followed exactly the epidemiological and biological criteria as agreed by the experts of the world. And his was a true pandemic.”
The WHO has been able to confirm that at least 18 500 people died from H1N1 virus but this remains a conservative preliminary estimate and the organization will need to a few more years to determine the full extent of the crisis.
“Pandemics, like the viruses that cause them, are unpredictable. There will be many questions, and we will have clear answers for only some. “
Swine Flu At Level Five
The World Heath Organization has raised the alert level for the swine flu pandemic of the phase 5, one step away from the highest level.
The CDC continues to evaluate information to determine the potential impact of an outbreak on an international level.
In Mexico more than 2,000 people have been hospitalized and 149 people have died from the flu. In the United States there are 66 confirmed cases in six states; New York, California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana. Globally there are 39 confirmed cases in six other countries including New Zealand, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and Israel.
Today, the House Sub-Committee on Health heard testimony from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to understand the full impact of the virus.
U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) said that, “We should not wait for public health emergencies to come up with ad-hoc responses. Not even counting this recent flu outbreak, about 35,000 Americans die of regular seasonal flu each year.”
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has determined that the swine flu is highly contagious and contains genetic pieces from four different virus sources. There is no evidence that the illness comes from pork products, but it seems to come from human to human contact. Symptoms include high fever, body aches, coughing, and sore throats, all similar to regular seasonal flu, but the regular flu shot is not preventative of this new virus.
Anne Schuchat, M.D., acting director for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that “it’s a very unusual virus and we don’t believe that humans have experienced it before.”
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) , M.D. said that America needs to be careful “not over reacting to the point that we create a pandemic of panic.” Gingrey said that although it is reassuring that Americans are prepared for an outbreak, he said that “I fear we are getting ourselves in a frenzy.”