Currently, there is no bird flu pandemic. A bird flu pandemic is a global outbreak that occurs when a new influenza A virus causes serious human illness and spreads easily from person to person. Pandemic stages include six phases divided into three periods: interpandemic period (stages 1 and 2), pandemic alert period (stages 3-5), and pandemic period (stage 6).
Currently, there is no bird flupandemic. A pandemic flu is a global outbreak that occurs when a new influenza A virus causes serious human illness and spreads easily from person to person.
Stages of a Bird Flu Pandemic
The World Health Organization (WHO) uses a six-phase pandemic alert system as a means of informing the world of the seriousness of the threat and of the need to launch progressively more intense preparedness activities. These six stages are broken into three phases, as follows:
Interpandemic period (stage 1 and 2)
Pandemic alert period (stages 3, 4, and 5)
Pandemic period (stage 6).
The World Health Organization currently has the bird flu pandemic at stage 3. In this stage of bird flu pandemic, human infections with a new subtype have occurred, but there has been no human-to-human spread, or, at most, only rare instances of the virus spreading between close contacts.
Experts at WHO and elsewhere believe that the world is closer to another influenza pandemic than at any time since 1968, when the last of the previous century's three pandemics occurred. The Director-General of WHO designates when the phases move from one stage to the next.
(Click Influenza Pandemic for more information about a possible bird flu pandemic.)
Add this article to your Favorites
Email this article
Print