A very severe influenza pandemic could grind the world to a complete halt

A recent announcement from the head of the World Health Organisation Ms. Margaret Chan highlighted that people should not become complacent regarding the swine flu pandemic and that all influenza viruses were still “highly unpredictable” and were still likely to mutate into other forms which could be more dangerous. Ms. Chan said that regarding influenza viruses the world must not be “taken by surprise”. She said that the WHO were still tracking the worldwide evolutionary of H1N1 swine flu as well as H5N1 bird flu with “eagle eyes”.

While most of the panic regarding swine flu has subsided it nevertheless remains a dangerous virus having killed almost 12,000 people since it first became apparent last year. While swine flu vaccines are now available they cannot be used by everybody, [for example those with an allergy to eggs] and the influenza medications Tamiflu and Relenza remain an important part of the flu pandemic preparedness plans of all nations.

At the time of the original declaration of the swine flu pandemic many people said that the WHO was overreacting because the majority of people who got it recovered with only mild symptoms. What most people don’t understand is that influenza pandemics can often suddenly turn much worse and Ms.Chan highlighted this when she said that because the swine influenza pandemic was not as bad as it could have been, this was probably “the best health news in a decade”.

A very severe influenza pandemic could grind the world to a complete halt causing millions of deaths and billions of pounds of economic damage. It is still possible that the H1N1 influenza virus could mutate into a dangerous form which would render the new swine influenza vaccine useless. Scientists all around the world are constantly working to outsmart new mutations and new versions of all influenza viruses known to man.