The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday formally declared the widely spreading A/H1N1 influenza has developed into a global pandemic.

As the new flu virus continues to spread with great uncertainty, the world needs to deal with it in a sensible way.

Avoid panic

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan reiterated on Thursday that the word "pandemic" mainly refers to the geographic spread of the new virus and it by no means indicates the greatest severity of the disease. She stressed that governments and the public should have a right understanding of the situation to avoid unnecessary panic.

"We want to make the clarity that the higher alert level of the pandemic does not necessarily mean that we are going to see a more dangerous virus, or many more people falling severely ill or dying," she said, after announcing the pandemic alert level raise from phase 5 to phase 6.

She said current assessments made by experts suggest the first pandemic in the 21st century should be a "moderate" one in terms of severity.

"On present evidence, the overwhelming majority of patients experience mild symptoms and make a rapid and full recovery, often in the absence of any form of medical treatment," she said.

She added the current number of deaths is small worldwide. The world should be braced to see more deaths from the disease but "we do not expect to see a sudden and dramatic jump in the number of severe or fatal infections."

The WHO has been working very hard recently to help countries, institutions as well as the media to really understand what pandemics are, according to the WHO's leading flu expert Dr Keiji Fukuda.

The purpose is "to provide as much information as possible so we can reduce the chances for any adverse effects," he told reporters in Geneva.

He said adverse effects caused by the pandemic declaration include panic as well as "misunderstandings that may lead to actions which in the end really just cause more anxiety among people."

WHO officials say the world is actually in the best ever position to deal with a pandemic due to efforts made in the past five years.

"No previous pandemic has been detected so early or watched so closely, in real-time, right at the very beginning. The world can now reap the benefits of investments, over the last five years, in pandemic preparedness," Chan said at a news briefing on Thursday.

"We have a head start. This places us in a strong position," she said.

Avoid complacency

Since the A/H1N1 virus has caused mainly mild diseases outside of Mexico where the first outbreak was identified, governments and people tend to let down their guard, the WHO chief warned.

She said the "the tendency to move into complacency" is actually the WHO's biggest concern.

"The virus is contagious, spreading easily from one person to another, and from one country to another. As of today (Thursday), nearly 30,000 confirmed cases have been reported in 74 countries," Chan noted Thursday.

She stressed countries should prepare to see cases, or the further spread of cases in the near future, and countries where outbreaks appear to have peaked should prepare for a second wave of infection.

She also highlighted the unpredicability of the virus' behavior as it continues to spread and infect different groups of population.

"We need to continue to monitor this disease, follow its track and does not allow it to come back in the second wave to give us more trouble," she said.

Recalibrate responses in lin with situation

Given the fact that the disease situation keeps evolving in different countries, governments and health authorities need to recaliberate their responses instead of being locked in pre-existing plans, WHO officials said.

"If we look to the past, we see that how the outbreaks have behaved early on in a pandemic can be different than how the outbreaks occur later in the year, and months later," Fukuda told reporters.

It is important for people to understand that situation can change and responsive measures may need to be adapted, he said.

He said many countries' existing pandemic plans are really based on a more severe scenario -- the spread of the A/H5N1 avian influenza virus, and in the new situation caused by the A/H1N1 virus, some actions which their plans call for may be inappropriate.

WHO chief Chan also stressed the need for countries to take responsive measures with flexibility, especially given the fact that the severity of the disease is different among different populations.

The public health response between countries can be different, because what is appropriate, for example for the United States, may be different for China, she told reporters Thursday.

WHO officials also warned against drastic and unwarranted measures，which are not helpful for dealing with the disease and can add to people's anxiety.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2009)