What Do Pandemic Phases Mean?
WHO Pandemic Phases have been the center of controversy.
Raising the pandemic alert level to 5
caused panic and fear in people worldwide. What does a WHO pandemic level really mean?
What Do Pandemic Phases Mean?
WHO Pandemic Phases have been the center of controversy. Raising the pandemic alert level to 5 caused panic and fear in people worldwide. What does a
WHO pandemic level
really mean?When the World Health Organization raised the pandemic alert level phase to 5, it did not anticipate the public reaction that occurred. In fact, the pandemic level does not measure how severe a flu virus is. It only measures how fast it is traveling and infecting people.
WHO, or the World Health Organization
, has its own way of measuring this. The organization has divided the world into regions—WHO regions. They have nothing to do with countries or borders that we know. When the current swine flu virus spread to a second of WHO's regions and was being passed from person to person, it triggered a raise in pandemic level to 5.
Sustained Human to Human Transmission
In order to raise the pandemic phases, WHO requires that there be sustained transmission. This means that it is easy to get the virus from another person.Limited Transmission For example, if you had limited transmission, Joe gets the virus. He gets pretty sick and his wife Sue takes him to the hospital. Sue gets the virus and the nurse who takes care of Joe gets the virus. Nobody else gets the virus from Joe, and perhaps one or two get the virus from Sue or the nurse. That is limited transmission.Sustained Transmission This time Joe gets the swine flu virus. Not only do Sue and his 3 children get the virus, but 25 people at work get sick after being exposed to Joe. He infects 13 people at the restaurant where he ate last Saturday, 3 people in the neighborhood, and 15 people at Church. These people, in turn, start infecting others after they have been exposed—but before they get sick. And it keeps going on. Each person who is exposed, in turn, exposes others who expose others—and most of them get sick. This is sustained human to human transmission.
Why Does WHO
Raise Pandemic Phases?
The WHO is currently considering adding a way to measure the severity of a disease to its pandemic alert levels because there was so much confusion when they raised the current pandemic phase level for the swine flu to 5. Many misunderstood, and thought that WHO was alerting the world to a very severe flu virus.While it may become more severe, the pandemic alert level has nothing to do with virulence or severity of the disease. What the pandemic level measures is how fast and how far the virus is moving. Because it is measuring how easy it is to get the virus from another person or how fast it infects people, it also projects how many people will probably get sick from this particular virus. In other words, if we know how fast and how far reaching the virus is, scientists can guesstimate how many people will be infected worldwide. That gives us the information that we need to prepare.
When WHO
Raises the Pandemic Alert Level
- Drug companies and vaccine companies have information that will now help them make decisions and set goals. They can start developing vaccines and manufacturing additional needed medications.
- Governments and countries start to put into place the pandemic plans that they have been working on for the last several years. Money is freed up for these activities.
- Local schools and organizations start implementing their pandemic plans.
- Hospitals get ready. They stockpile supplies, drugs, etc. They make sure they have enough staff. Isolation areas are established. Plans are finalized to handle large numbers of patients.
As you can see, pandemic phases are intended to mobilize organizations and governments. They are not intended to scare or frighten the average person. But, it is a warning for us. And it gives you an opportunity to stockpile food and to prepare your family for anything else that you might need if a quarantine is declared in your area. Many local, state and federal governments have mandatory quarantines in their pandemic plans. Make sure that you and your family are ready—if it comes to that!
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