It looks like The WHO is finally going to be raising the Pandemic Alert to its highest level, Level 6. The last time we where at level 6 was 41 years ago due to the Hong Flu of 1968 which killed approx 1 Million people.
A lot of people have been arguing that the WHO should have raised the level to phase 6 approx 2 months ago, they have been hesitant not to because all though the Flu has has been and still is spreading around the globe rapidly the cases are mild and no worse then standard Influenza.
One fear a lot of people have is that there may be a 2nd wave of the Swine flu which could mutated into something worse which is what happen in 1918 – the Spanish Flu which spread rapidly with symptons similar to a flu then when there was a 2nd wave which killed between 50 million – 100 million people which equals 3% – 6 % of the worlds population!
Currently at Phase 5:
Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.
and now Moving to Phase 6
Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.