Published 12 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2425
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2425

News

World Health Organization declares A (H1N1) influenza pandemic

¹ Geneva

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The head of the World Health Organization has declared the first influenza pandemic in 41 years after intense consultations with top officials from countries that are experiencing rapid transmission of the novel A (H1N1) flu virus at the community level, and with international experts monitoring the global outbreak.

"The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic. We are at the earliest days of the pandemic," Margaret Chan, WHO director general, told a news conference, shortly after she decided to raise the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 5 to the maximum, phase 6.

"We have reason to believe that this pandemic, at least in its early days, will be of moderate severity," she said and noted "the virus is contagious, spreading easily from one person to another and from one country to another."

Dr Chan took the decision after a conference call on Wednesday with . . . [Full text of this article]

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