Does the end of the influenza pandemic mean that fewer people will become sick and die of the H1N1 (2009) virus?
The future impact of the H1N1 (2009) virus is not possible to predict. On the one hand, the H1N1 (2009) virus is expected to continue to circulate as a seasonal influenza strain for the foreseeable future and because of this, more people will develop immunity to this current version of the virus. On the other hand, the virus is also expected to change over time as a result of antigenic drift and these changes may mean that the immunity that has developed to this strain of the virus may become less protective against future strains of this virus. In addition, many people were not infected by the H1N1 (2009) virus during the pandemic, and there may be areas of some countries that were less severely affected during the pandemic that can still experience significant outbreaks.
