Flu Q&A

Why has the World Health Organisation now declared a global flu pandemic?

Under the WHO’s own rules for defining a flu pandemic it really had no choice, given that the new H1N1 strain of swine flu is spreading rapidly in several parts of the world. Indeed the technical criteria for a pandemic were probably exceeded last month but the WHO hesitated because this virus has caused relatively few cases of severe illness so far - and experts did not want to cause unnecessary alarm.