How serious is the threat of a flu pandemic?
Experts at the World Health Organization and elsewhere believe the world is now closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century’s three pandemics occurred. WHO uses a series of six phases of pandemic alert as a system for informing the world of the seriousness of the threat. Currently, WHO has designated a Phase 3 level of alert, meaning that there has been “No or very limited human-to-human transmission.” A pandemic, or “Phase 6,” occurs when there is “efficient or sustained human-to-human transmission.
