Swine flu pandemic "over"
Wednesday August 11th, 2010
The world-wide swine flu pandemic is now over, the World Health Organisation declared yesterday.
The
virus has not disappeared - and is resurfacing in different countries,
WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan said yesterday.
The virus was likely to continue to surface during seasonal epidemics - but did not seem to be the dominant form of flu virus any more, she said.
She warned it continued to be a threat to young people, such as pregnant women, during local outbreaks.
WHO has been accused of succumbing to commercial interests and exaggerating the threat.
But Dr Chan insisted it was "pure good luck" the pandemic did not have more severe effects.
She said: "As I said, pandemics are unpredictable and prone to deliver surprises. No two pandemics are ever alike. This pandemic has turned out to be much more fortunate than what we feared a little over a year ago.
"The virus did not mutate during the pandemic to a more lethal form. Widespread resistance to oseltamivir did not develop. The vaccine proved to be a good match with circulating viruses and showed an excellent safety profile.
"Thanks to extensive preparedness and support from the international community, even countries with very weak health systems were able to detect cases and report them promptly.
"Had things gone wrong in any of these areas, we would be in a very different situation today."
Tags: Flu & Viruses | Respiratory | World Health
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