# 3312
While not everyone is convinced of the wisdom of doing so, the WHO (World Health Organization) appears poised to announce a move to level 6 on the pandemic alert scale in the near future.
Based on the existing criteria, their can be little doubt that the conditions for declaring a pandemic have been met. There are still calls, however, for some kind of severity index to go along with any pandemic designation.
The problem the WHO faces is that the impact of any influenza pandemic is likely to vary considerably across geographic, societal, and economic landscapes.
What might be a mild or moderate pandemic in North America, or Europe, could well be far more devastating in Africa, South America, or parts of Asia.
World 'very close' to swine flu pandemic: WHO
June 10, 2009 - 2:14AM
The world is getting "very close" to a swine flu pandemic, a senior World Health Organisation official said Tuesday, noting that there is now community-level transmission in Australia.
"We are really getting very close" to a pandemic, said Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general, adding that the WHO is now focusing on helping countries to deal with such a situation when it is declared.
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