World Health Organization :H1N1 in post-pandemic period

World Health Organization :H1N1 in post-pandemic period

www.who.int

Director-General's opening statement at virtual press conference : 10 August 2010

The world is no longer in phase 6 of influenza pandemic alert. We are now moving into the post-pandemic period. The new H1N1 virus has largely run its course.

These are the views of members of the Emergency Committee, which was convened earlier today by teleconference.

The Committee based its assessment on the global situation, as well as reports from several countries that are now experiencing influenza.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The Director-General goes on to say

I fully agree with the Committee’s advice.

As we enter the post-pandemic period, this does not mean that the H1N1 virus has gone away. Based on experience with past pandemics, we expect the H1N1 virus to take on the behaviour of a seasonal influenza virus and continue to circulate for some years to come.

In the post-pandemic period, localized outbreaks of different magnitude may show significant levels of H1N1 transmission. This is the situation we are observing right now in New Zealand, and may see elsewhere.

So the 'pandemic' is over but the virus is still around. It seems Out-of-season outbreaks are no longer being reported in either the northern or southern hemisphere. Influenza outbreaks, including those primarily caused by the H1N1 virus, show an intensity similar to that seen during seasonal epidemics.

Personally i think there are still a lot of questions that still need to be asked about how the whole thing got started. I remember watching a documentary about show cientists were interested about how the 1918 flu virus worked so they went digging up people who had died from it to collect samples for study. Then a few years later we had a huge world wide pandemic. I've never been convinced this was a coincidence.

www.who.int
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by PhoenixOD
10 August 2010

While perhaps worthy of a discussion in its own right (and I suspect without looking there is already threads running), its not clear to me why this is in the "Breaking" news section.

reply to post by alfa1


Apparently its been wrongly reported as breaking news all over the net today.

The mods have told me its still worth discussing so its now been moved to this forum

One story that wasnt widely reported before the pandemic started was that a batch of N1H1 exploded on a train in Switzerland.

Posted on 28 April 2009 08:22:36 by 2ndDivisionVet

Lausanne (Switzerland), A container for transporting swine flu virus samples exploded on a Swiss train, authorities said Tuesday, but stressed that there was no danger to the public.

The container, which was filled with dry ice and carried samples of the H1N1 swine flu virus and was destined for Switzerland's national influenza centre in Geneva, exploded Monday night on board a train.

A laboratory employee had picked up the samples in Zurich to transport them by train to Geneva, but the package exploded near Fribourg and Lausanne, after melting dry ice, which had been wrongly placed, caused a build-up of pressure.

Two people suffered slight injuries, police confirmed, but authorities stressed there was no danger for the public as the virus was not the mutated strain which is suspected to have caused up to 149 deaths in Mexico.

The train was halted for several hours and the 61 passengers on board the affected carriage monitored until an infection could be completely ruled out, police said.

Container carrying swine flu virus explodes on Swiss train

Im not sure which chemical company was transporting the samples but to my mind this could be a smoking gun that hints at a possible conspiracy.