WHO declares H1N1 pandemic over
The World Health Organization says the new H1N1 influenza pandemic is now over.
WHO lifted the new flu pandemic alert after assessing the global situation at a meeting of international experts on Tuesday. The highest alert has been in place since June last year.
The decision came while no wide-spread infections of the flu virus have been reported even from the southern hemisphere, which is now in winter.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says the decision does not mean that the H1N1 virus has gone away.
She says the virus will take on the behavior of a seasonal influenza virus and continue to circulate for some years to come.
The WHO says about 18,500 people in 214 nations and territories have died from the H1N1 influenza. Japan's health ministry puts the nation's deaths from the virus at 202.
WHO lifted the new flu pandemic alert after assessing the global situation at a meeting of international experts on Tuesday. The highest alert has been in place since June last year.
The decision came while no wide-spread infections of the flu virus have been reported even from the southern hemisphere, which is now in winter.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says the decision does not mean that the H1N1 virus has gone away.
She says the virus will take on the behavior of a seasonal influenza virus and continue to circulate for some years to come.
The WHO says about 18,500 people in 214 nations and territories have died from the H1N1 influenza. Japan's health ministry puts the nation's deaths from the virus at 202.
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