The World Was Lucky To Escape More Flu Deaths Says WHO Boss

availability of meds such as Tamiflu which drastically reduced chances of death

Ms. Margaret Chan, The Director General of the World Health Organization has yet again reiterated how the world has been extremely fortunate to have escaped with just a mild pandemic influenza outbreak and how the fact that the H1N1 virus failed to mutate into a more deadly version saved thousands of lives.

She spoke about how only very few cases of resistance to the influenza medication Tamiflu were recorded in a few isolated places and this resistance did not spread far. Explaining that while in some parts of the world hospitals were put under extreme pressure on the whole they managed to cope and there had been no widespread complete breakdowns in medical care which often occur in pandemic situations.

In a few weeks time the World Health Organization will meet to debate whether to declare that the swine flu pandemic has now entered into its post-peak phase and that it is on the way out. By using data from all over the world, scientists will evaluate whether the H1N1 influenza virus which has killed an estimated 18,000 people can be declared less of a threat now.

While it may seem that 18,000 people is a huge amount of deaths from an influenza virus it is much less than the hundreds of thousands of deaths that occurred in previous influenza pandemics in 1957 and 1968 and drastically less than the millions who died from the Spanish flu at the end of the First World War.

In fact the low death toll can be credited to the World Health Organization’s strong leadership and clear information about what to do in a pandemic situation and also because of the ready availability of medications such as Tamiflu and Relenza which drastically reduced the chances of death when given to infected individuals.

Millions of people have much to be thankful for and the World Health Organization should get a large proportion of the credit. The handling of the swine flu pandemic has highlighted the need for worldwide action to be taken against certain viruses and illnesses and has also shown how when everybody works together great things can be achieved.