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President Barack Obama is briefed in the Situation Room about the 2009 flu pandemic, which killed as many as 17,000 Americans.
Pandemic

A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν, pan, "all" and δῆμος, demos, "local people" the 'crowd') is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected people is not a pandemic. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected people such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.

Throughout human history, there have been a number of pandemics of diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis. The most fatal pandemic in recorded history was the Black Death (also known as The Plague), which killed an estimated 75–200 million people in the 14th century. The term was not used yet but was for later pandemics including the 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish flu). Current pandemics include COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) and HIV/AIDS.
Common killers and pandemics

According to the World Health Organization, a pandemic can start when three conditions have been met:
  • the emergence of a disease new to the population.
  • the agent infects humans, causing serious illness.
  • the agent spreads easily and sustainably among humans.
A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people; it must also be infectious. For example cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic because the disease is not infectious (although certain causes of some types of cancer might be).
World Health Organization pandemic phases

The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a plan to prepare globally the fight against influenza. It defines the stages of a pandemic and makes recommendations for national measures before and during a pandemic. The phases are:
  • Interpandemic period:
  • Phase 1: No new influenza virus subtypes have been detected in humans.
  • Phase 2: No new influenza virus subtypes have been detected in humans, but an animal variant threatens human disease.
  • Pandemic alert period:
  • Phase 3: Human infection(s) with a new subtype but no human-to-human spread.
  • Phase 4: Small cluster(s) with limited localized human-to-human transmission
  • Phase 5: Larger cluster(s) but human-to-human spread still localized.
  • Pandemic period:
  • Phase 6: Pandemic: increased and sustained transmission in general population.
Kiddle: Pandemic
Wikipedia: Pandemic
 
 
 
 
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