pandemic

Although swine flu seems to be spreading slowly, it is still progressing quickly enough to justify preparing for a pandemic.

He took the fight against infectious diseases, and particularly the threat of pandemic influenza to a new level.

WHO will now work to ensure that this vaccine gets to groups who otherwise would have no access to pandemic vaccines.

For me, the best health news of the previous decade is the fact that the long overdue influenza pandemic has been so moderate in its impact.

Pandemic influenza is usually associated with a greater number of cases, higher severity of illness and consequently a higher death toll.

Chan said the virus is likely to remain moderate at least in the early days of the pandemic, though she warned that the virus could change.

Many countries are testing plans to deal with a flu pandemic should the virus develop into a more dangerous form.

She said the Secretary-General's ability to mobilize resources "is extremely vital when the world is under threat of an imminent pandemic. "

Making new influenza vaccines ready to immunize people generally takes five to six months after first identification of the pandemic virus.

As you know, this has been the most carefully watched and scrutinized pandemic in history.

Scientists fear the virus could spark a pandemic in which millions die if it mutates into a form that passes easily from person to person.

This pandemic has turned out to be much more fortunate than what we feared a little over a year ago.

Pandemic scares have an unfortunate habit of looming just when investors are regaining a bit of confidence after a financial shock.

But at this point there is no talk of activating the country's standing order for pandemic flu vaccine production, she said.

Well, we seem to have dodged the deadly pandemic this year that most of us feared, but this threat could reappear at any time.

With the threat of pandemic influenza looming, there has never been a greater need for health leadership, and health partnership.

As also noted, WHO did not rush to declare a pandemic, but did so only when fully satisfied that all criteria for doing so had been met.

The World Health Organisation, which yesterday raised the alert to that of a global pandemic, described the virus as "moderate" .

We do not know whether the H5N1 virus will cause the next pandemic.

Identifying public health interventions that might be able to halt a pandemic in its earliest stages is therefore a priority.

She said, "The decision to declare an influenza pandemic is a responsibility that I take very, very seriously. "

When a strain of influenza with pandemic potential struck in April, it was generally referred to as "swine flu" .

Bird and swine flu might have receded for now, but the top candidate for a global pandemic remains: a novel strain of flu.

Some states' triage guidelines are rigid, with a single set of criteria intended to apply throughout the severe phase of a pandemic.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, three main transmission routes for HIV have been identified.

"I think it is too premature and too early for us to say we have come to an end of the pandemic influenza worldwide, " she said.

The world is much better prepared today to handle a pandemic than it was just a few years ago.

No: they argue this global pandemic - and all the deaths we are about to see - is the direct result of our demand for cheap meat.

I am glad to see that governments around the region are already taking steps to prevent Avian Flu from becoming a pandemic.

Doctor Fukuda, an acting assistant director-general , said the W. H. O. has been working with the member states to prepare for a pandemic.

Two years ago, we met together at a time of great uncertainty, as we faced the threat of a global influenza pandemic.

As I said, an influenza pandemic is an extreme expression of the need for global solidarity.

To be declared a pandemic, Besser said, the virus must be new, cause severe disease, and transmit easily enough to be sustained.

Globally, we have good reason to believe that this pandemic, at least in its early days, will be of moderate severity.

As you know, this provision and this decision were in place prior to the onset of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.

Intellectual Property Watch reported that an Intergovernmental Meeting on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness had not resolved all issues.

Another Place to Die is a vivid account of individuals caught up in a worldwide flu pandemic.

End result, only 15 states have been certified to be able to do mass distribution of vaccine and drugs in a pandemic.

Sooner or later, however, Such a pandemic will occur and history shows that it must be taken with the utmost seriousness.

So producing pandemic vaccines as a precaution may turn out to be a waste of resources with deadly results.

The U. S. median age of pandemic infections so far is 12, but somewhat higher in other countries.

The virus did not mutate during the pandemic to a more lethal form.

But he points out that none of the firms has so far got a pandemic flu vaccine past safety trials.

And the risk of a new, lethal infection suddenly becoming pandemic as a result of modern transport links is as biological as it gets.

The organisation had been under pressure not to declare a pandemic for such a mild virus.

IN RECENT weeks, the world's public health officials have been afflicted with a sort of pandemic of meetings about bird flu.

I fear I may find myself amid the debris of an earthquake one day. Or some pandemic disease may break out in a heavily polluted area.

Start with the question of whether the new virus is a dangerous pandemic in the making.

There needs to be recognition that the whole world is affected by this pandemic and the chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

At the forthcoming Summit, I look forward to discussing ways to help this region prepare for, and respond to, the threat of a pandemic.

Lately, there's been a lot of movie-fueled worry surrounding the possibility of a devastating global pandemic.

Several studies have put all this together to estimate the overall impact of a pandemic on economic growth.

No. Despite an advance warning that has lasted almost two years, the world is ill-prepared to defend itself during a pandemic.

The World Health Organization will not declare an influenza pandemic unless a virus becomes widespread in at least two areas of the world.

There has been a view that fatal cases involving the pandemic have tended to occur among the young, according to the team.

'All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparation plans, ' she said.

But her reassurances clash with a widely held public understanding of a pandemic as the spread of a serious infectious disease.

In America the largest-ever exercise to simulate the impact of that sort of pandemic on the industry is under way.

What is more, if there were a pandemic it would be only a matter of time before a drug-resistant mutation of the virus emerged.

Fukuda notes a pandemic has nothing to do with the severity of the disease, but rather with its geographic spread.

The current outbreak did not alter the risk of a more serious flu pandemic developing in the future.

This could result in a serious influenza pandemic affecting many people worldwide. However, there is no evidence that this has happened yet.

The combination of a global influenza pandemic and a global economic crisis, both on unprecedented scales, is battering the region hard.

All the pandemic vaccines have had their own safety tests, and almost all are based on seasonal flu vaccines used for years.

She adds it is fortunate the current H1N1 pandemic is moderate because the world is not prepared to deal with such a toxic and deadly virus.

A pandemic is a worldwide epidemic. It is a new virus and one to which the populations will have no immunity.

This virus is a new virus that can cause serious disease, and very easy to spread and spread, a pandemic may be popular.

But fearing that the virus could return with a vengeance, officials are coordinating with drug and vaccine makers to prepare for a pandemic.

So far, evidence suggests that current seasonal influenza vaccines will not be protective against pandemic influenza.

One of the deadliest viruses ever to infect the human race was the Spanish flu strain that caused a global pandemic, beginning in 1918.

At least some pandemic viruses are known to have emerged following a reassortment event.

Countries realize that the cost of taking action is significantly less than the cost of a pandemic.

The H1N1 pandemic was characterized by the emergence of a new influenza virus to which many people had no pre-existing immunity.

With the rise of the fashion of nostalgia, Christmas sweaters which had suffered the attack in the past is dramatically pandemic.

But Yamada told SciDev. Net that "this is a whole new ballgame" because H5N1 was not the main concern in the current pandemic.

Pandemic influenza emerges as a result of influenza viruses undergoing major genetic changes known as antigenic shift .

The pandemic H1N1 is the first public health emergency of international concern to occur since the revised IHR came into force.

Virologists are trying to discover the mutations that could enable H5N1 to spread between people and go pandemic.

Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a strain that spreads easily among people, triggering a pandemic that would sweep the globe.

Our investment in trying to prevent pandemic flu is affecting the distribution of possible outcomes.

It warns that the risk of global influenza pandemic is as great in late 2007 as it was in mid-2005, when the first cases began to emerge.

Investing now in promoting measures to prepare for a pandemic or other health emergency will have considerable value.

No one disputes the difficulty of communicating an uncertain situation or the concept of risk in a pandemic situation.

'It is premature to say the pandemic has peaked world-wide, ' she said.

If this strain of the virus were to escape, it could cause a fresh pandemic, as virtually no one would have immunity.

Because of the pandemic nature of the infection, the benefits from inoculation operate on an individual level only.

A truly worldwide event, like the influenza pandemic, highlights weaknesses in health services and inequities in access to commodities.

Public health specialists around the world are struggling to quantify the human toll of a future flu pandemic.

We are now facing the first flu pandemic in the age of the internet: on-line advice is proliferating almost as rapidly as the virus itself.

Because scientists know it's foolish to try to predict the direction of a flu pandemic.

These improvements are a permanent strength, whether this H5N1 virus causes the next pandemic or not.

But public health has much to say about the influenza pandemic, how it is managed, and how its impact can be reduced.

Concerns have been raised about whether the recent tsunami in South-East Asia may have increased the risk of an influenza pandemic.

Mr. Cordingley noted that the term pandemic was 'a measure of the spread of the virus, not the severity of the virus.

Both Alambritis and Oxford Economics said the pandemic's most severe impact would occur in the last three months of 2009.

If you guessed, "unleash a hard-kill pandemic that takes out a significant portion of the weak or sick people" then you guessed right.

Effective prevention is indispensable for defeating the HIV pandemic, and providing treatment is an integral part of this larger effort.

Barnett says only one-third of those surveyed even felt knowledgeable about the public health impacts of a flu pandemic.

Only a few countries, like India, Indonesia, and Thailand, are feeling the brunt of the pandemic, right now.

He stressed the need for a new generation of flu shots, particularly in the face of a future pandemic.

Today, the greatest threat to international public health security would be an influenza pandemic.

The pandemic vaccine should make you and your family safe from this virus, but you may not get it for months, if you can get it at all.

Then you get a Ukraine thing, where some countries have suddenly been ambushed by the pandemic and have gone over the top in their response.

"It was devastating, " she says. "But I flipped a switch in my mind to concentrate on what we thought might turn into a pandemic. "

Why are we so worried about this pandemic possibility when thousands die every year from seasonal epidemics?

"In the past we were unable to recognise how and why one type of cholera strain replaced another in a new pandemic, " Nair told SciDev. Net.

So far, evidence suggests that it is unlikely that seasonal influenza vaccines will be protective against the new pandemic virus.

"This multi-sector coordination will be crucial in this pandemic situation, " she said.

That could mean bird flu will remain a dead end, infecting the occasional unlucky person but never turning into a full-blown pandemic.

If that happens, a flu pandemic could quickly spread throughout the world because people have no immunity to this evolving viral strain.

Experts widely assumed that H5N1 would cause the next pandemic, and its severity was almost taken for granted.

In pandemic period, because its performance " a side old and young is similar " , is called epidemic disease malaria.

This season has again given us some stark reminders that the threat of an influenza pandemic has by no means diminished.

Scientists suspect that some gene combinations may result in a particularly potent form of flu and ignite a pandemic in humans.

He says the world is much better prepared to respond to a potential pandemic than it was in 1918.

But a pandemic would dent hopes of a rapid recovery from recession, by providing yet another reason for gloom to continue.

For all her lack of a strategic vision, however, she has strengthened the WHO's ability to respond to a pandemic.

Pandemic Legion had no intent of coming to this server until you started making rumors of it.

So far, our real-world swine flu pandemic appears to be less severe than the dire scenarios used in our modeling.

Reducing the Impact of the Next Influenza Pandemic Using Household- based Public Health Interventions .

Such a change could mark the start of a global outbreak (a pandemic).

Ways were sought to shorten the time between the emergence of a pandemic virus and the availability of safe and effective vaccines.

But genetic mutations could make HA a better match for human cells, helping to turn H5N1 into a form that could spark a human flu pandemic.

But Doctor Fukuda said the public should understand what a pandemic means.

The World Health Organization has stated that the world is not prepared for the next pandemic, whatever its scale.

Such data are urgently needed at a time when many countries are intensifying their pandemic preparedness activities.

The emergence of an inherently more virulent virus during the course of a pandemic can never be ruled out.

Should I ask my doctor to purchase oseltamivir Tamiflu and keep it in his clinic for me, in case I come down with pandemic flu?

The direct result, in Dr Brilliant's words: "SARS is the pandemic that did not occur. "

However, to have the greatest impact, pandemic vaccines need to be available quickly and in large quantities.

Seen through this lens, nearly one-third of sub-Saharan Africa is already likely to be impacted by the current pandemic.

While neither the timing nor the severity of the next pandemic can be predicted, the probability that a pandemic will occur has increased.

Meanwhile, says Ms Whitmore, in the pandemic-panicked US, kisses and handshakes might be rather thin on the ground this winter.

However, the officials emphasised that a pandemic did not necessarily mean the disease was particularly deadly.

Therefore, pandemic planning should consider risks of emergence of a variety of influenza subtypes from a variety of sources.

Most importantly, preparedness for a pandemic has strengthened national and international capacities in fundamental ways.

The decision to declare an influenza pandemic is a responsibility, and a duty, that I take very, very seriously.

Health officials around the world are stockpiling Tamiflu to prepare for a potential flu pandemic.

But we do know, from a recent World Bank estimate, that the global economic costs of the next influenza pandemic could reach US$ 3 trillion.

Let me mention some: AIDS, pandemic influenza, a new disease like SARS, or bioterrorism using a virus like smallpox.

GE is developing the production equipment, which is cheap to set up and run in case of a pandemic.

We obtained funding to help the World Health Organization monitor and respond to a potential avian flu pandemic.

Perhaps investors had already factored the impact of a pandemic into their calculations.

However, any activity that spreads avian influenza increases the possibility of the emergence of a pandemic virus.

But public health officials have also had to consider the risks if the public overreacts to a pandemic declaration.

The game's simulation of combating a pandemic gives people a sense of how difficult it is to make public health decisions.

And stopping smoking, losing excess weight and avoiding binge drinking will reduce your chances of getting the severe form of pandemic flu.

Our first article asks whether the world is ready for the next pandemic. Our second assesses the economic costs.

Their basic message was the same - contain a potential human bird flu pandemic as soon as possible, before it comes to the United States.

First, let me clarify the difference between seasonal flu, avian flu, and human pandemic influenza.

But public health officials have also had to consider the risks if the public over reacts to a pandemic declaration.

WHO has further urged countries with adequate resources to stockpile antiviral drugs nationally for use at the start of a pandemic.

The findings have differing implications for the control of seasonal acute respiratory infections and for pandemic influenza.

Finally, the quality of health services influences the impact of any pandemic.

The ability to cause sustained disease outbreaks in a community marks a significant upwards shift in the risk for a pandemic.

But a global flu pandemic would likely impede recovery from the recession, especially for emerging economies dependent on trade and tourism.

Improved methods to protect against influenza are sorely needed, particularly in the face of an impending pandemic.

As public health officials have stressed since the swine flu pandemic surfaced last April, influenza is unpredictable.

The new H and N surface proteins mean most people do not have antibodies to the virus, allowing it to go pandemic.

Wherever and whenever a pandemic starts, everyone around the world is at risk.

Dr Chan said that on the basis of evidence so far the pandemic would be of "moderate severity" .

WHO will be able to revise its estimate of pandemic vaccine supply once it has the new yield information.

Globally, the levels and patterns of H1N1 transmission now being seen differ significantly from what was observed during the pandemic.

Swine influenza viruses can give a rise to a hybrid virus by mixing with a human influenza virus and can cause pandemic.

INTERPRETATION: Pregnant women might be at increased risk for complications from pandemic H1N1 virus infection.

The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of the crime pandemic society faces on a daily basis.

So the Swedish government says the World Health Organization has decided to declare a global flu pandemic, but no official announcement yet.

The severity of a pandemic has to do with when people get infected, how often are they going to develop really severe disease.

One big unknown is whether companies will be able to make enough pandemic vaccine to meet the demand.

The world is in the grip of a swine-flu pandemic, which will probably infect 40% or more of the human race.

The prospects of a severe global swine flu pandemic appear to be diminishing.

But global flu vaccine production capabilities are limited and if larger doses are needed, fewer people could be vaccinated in a pandemic.

It is less likely that the Polish Health Minister will dare refuse vaccine the next time WHO declares a pandemic after this incident.

The pandemic may be like a typhoon gathering along the unexpected coast.

"One absolute requirement" for the international community is "to get prepared for the [human] pandemic, " he added.

Reassortment could result in a fully transmissible pandemic virus, announced by a sudden surge of cases with explosive spread.

It is still unclear how effective the vaccines currently being developed would be if H5N1 changed and sparked a human flu pandemic.

The confirmation of H5N1 avian influenza in England has caused renewed concern over the prospect of a global influenza pandemic.

But questions were raised as to why the current situation has not yet developed enough to be called a full-fledged pandemic.

These studies were undertaken by members of a WHO informal network for mathematical modelling of the pandemic.

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's drugs watchdog met vaccine manufacturers on Thursday, a further step in preparations for a flu pandemic.

But public health officals officials have also had to consider the risks if the public over reacts over reacts to a pandemic declaration.

A pandemic occurs when a disease spreads around the world and affects many hundreds of thousands of people in many countries.

Were all those pandemic warnings just scare-mongering?

The progress was reported Friday at the first meeting of a WHO Advisory Group on pandemic influenza vaccine production and supply.

It decided to make the game's villains a group of sickly-looking green pigs, in homage to the swine-flu pandemic then grabbing headlines.

Many activities undertaken to prepare for an influenza pandemic are improving our collective defence against other outbreaks.

Regarding the WHO pandemic alert level, currently at Phase 5, he said: "I would be surprised if we don't get to a level 6. "

The WHO influenza pandemic policies and response have not been improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry.

For another tabletop, the scenario involved a pandemic that caused every third person to be sick or away from work.

Lead researcher Lloyd Morgan said there could be a 'brain tumour pandemic' unless people changed their patterns of mobile phone use.

We were expecting, and fearing, that the highly lethal H5N1 avian virus would spark the next pandemic.

The organisation has also decided not to recommend an immediate switch in vaccine production from seasonal influenza to the pandemic strain.

To many, the news of the "pending" Pandemic of Influenza is just another hinge on the doorway leading to helplessness and hopelessness.

The results sparked panic that the pathogen could leak out of the lab and trigger a pandemic.

Burnham insisted that the UK was in a "very strong position to respond to the global pandemic we now face" .

Pandemic waves can be separated by months and an immediate "at-ease" signal may be premature.

Safety monitoring systems are an integral part of strategies for the implementation of the new pandemic influenza vaccines.

A survey of the ongoing seventh pandemic of cholera is given and the possible emergence of a new eighth pandemic is discussed.

The timing cannot be predicted, but rapid international spread is certain once the pandemic virus appears.

A number of lessons learnt from this experience should be taken into consideration in preparation for a potential pandemic.

In 1976, a late winter outbreak of swine flu at a military base in the USA led to fears of a devastating pandemic.

For example, in those countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic, it is often grandparents who are left to care for AIDS orphans.

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's pandemic influenza special advisor, told press that mutations to the virus are common and must be monitored.

A potential human pandemic cannot be ruled out as long as the virus continues to exist in poultry.

We have stockpiles of anti-viral drugs in case of a pandemic situation.

Nevertheless experts worry any mutation of the virus could enable it to pass between humans and trigger a pandemic that could kill millions.

But researchers simply do not have the ingredients needed to make a pandemic flu vaccine ahead of time.

Regulatory authorities have licensed (approved) pandemic vaccines in a number of countries.

Con: Anything that furthers the misconception that golf is an athletic endeavor will just encourage the worldwide obesity pandemic.

WHO chief Chan urges people not to become complacent because of the relatively mild nature of the H1N1 pandemic.

Firm evidence of improved transmissibility would be grounds for moving to a higher level of pandemic alert.

He had a simple message: 'Prepare for a pandemic now, before it is too late.

The pandemic will be the subject of a hearing organised by the Council of Europe later this month (26 January).

And the vaccine might be of little use if a different virus causes the next pandemic.

Since the spread of the pandemic virus is considered unstoppable, vaccine will be needed in all countries.

Some have argued that not only was the definition changed, but that it was done to pave the way for declaring a pandemic.

It's curious that there is no evidence of mass die-offs of chickens or household birds across America before the human pandemic happened.

We employ this approach to value stockpiling of antiviral drugs as a precautionary measure against a possible influenza pandemic.

This meeting is yet another expression of the continuing concern about the serious consequences of an influenza pandemic.

You covered items on pandemic influenza preparedness and implementation of the International Health Regulations.

The United States announced a new International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza at the World Summit in New York.

That's how many past pandemic viruses, including 2009 H1N1, were created, leading to new strains to which humans have no natural immunity.

Although we are now in the post pandemic period, the H1N1 (2009) virus is still circulating as one of the seasonal flu strains.

The H1N1 influenza virus is now a stage 6 pandemic; the virus is spreading from human to human and outbreaks are occurring around the world.

And now we have another great global contagion on our doorstep: the prospect of the first influenza pandemic of this century.

In the post-pandemic period, influenza disease activity will have returned to levels normally seen for seasonal influenza.

Objective: To explore the regularity and new trends of influenza so as to direct the early warning and forcasting of the pandemic influenza.

At the moment, the world's pandemic-alert system is distressingly secretive.

It may take something as serious as a pandemic to make us realise the real cost of factory farming.

The pandemic threat is the h-five none influenza virus, also known as the bird flu.

She warns that an apparent decline in mortality rates outside and within Mexico does not mean the pandemic is coming to an end.

Young deaths from such conditions, precipitated by infection with the H1N1 virus, can be another dimension of the pandemic's impact.

Influenza, in its zoonotic, seasonal epidemic and pandemic forms, remains a substantial global public health threat.

The world can now reap the benefits of investments, over the last five years, in pandemic preparedness.

Antibiotics are used to treat plague, but some fear that if the bacteria develop resistance, another pandemic could occur.

Population susceptibility to infection by a new virus drives the dynamics of an influenza pandemic.

Many reports about the A(H1N1) flu pandemic have failed to compare the disease's death toll with others that may have more of an impact.

In January 2004, WHO issued the first reports about the appearance of an avian influenza virus with the potential to cause a pandemic.

As long as the virus continues to circulate in birds, the threat of a pandemic will persist.

Meetings in the last several months have identified several key pandemic preparedness issues.

The 1918 pandemic coincided with the end of the first world war: the data may have been distorted by the conflict.

What technologies are being used to grow pandemic influenza viruses to make vaccines?

At that meeting I said that there will be a human influenza pandemic.

Phase 4 "indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion. "

We may well have reduced the probability of a pandemic happening, but we are never going to drop our vigilance.

Furthermore, the 2009 influenza pandemic has left some uncertainty and controversy over the public health impact of influenza.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is also focused on the consequences of a possible human flu pandemic.

Britain has strong ties through trade, investment and tourism with North America, where the pandemic probably originated.

It has no bearing on what might happen if an entirely new virus, such as H5N1 bird flu, mutated to cause a human pandemic.