What happens if the threat level for a pandemic is moved to six?

by Kirk Mason (mason@wsbt.com)

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This 2009 image taken through a microscope and provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, shows the H1N1 strain of the swine flu virus. (AP Photo/Center for Disease Control and Prevention, C. S. Goldsmith and A. Balish)

By WSBT News1

Story Created: May 4, 2009 at 12:50 PM EST

Story Updated: May 4, 2009 at 1:20 PM EST

The World Health Organization has six phases for rating a pandemic alert. Right now the H1N1 flu is at phase five, and has been for several days.

Brandon Berger of Plymouth has a Good Question: “What happens if the threat level for a pandemic is moved to six?”

WSBT's Kirk Mason looked into it.

The scenes coming from Mexico of people wearing masks would not happen under the World Health Organization’s first three phases of a pandemic alert.

Under those levels mostly animals are at risk. There are very few human cases.

Phase four means human-to-human transmission has started.

Phase five happens when the virus spreads to two countries within the same region. In the case of H1N1, it moved from Mexico to the United States.

The World Health Organization says phase five is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent, but to move to phase six, which is a pandemic, there would need to be community-level outbreaks in at least one country that is in a different region from where the virus started.

So if community-level outbreaks start, for example, in Europe, H1N1 would be considered a pandemic.

Kelly Jolliff, from the St. Joseph County Health Department, says if H1N1 becomes a pandemic, we might not notice any changes locally.

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