Cases of H1N1 swine flu continue to appear—especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia, for example, saw a quadrupling of cases in a week earlier this month. But that is hardly a surprise: Flu virus is known to be transmitted more efficiently in cold temperatures, and so a winter hike in infections there is to be expected.
It must have surprised officials at the World Health Organizatifon (WHO), however, because on June 11 after a high-level meeting to consider the new data from the Antipodes, they boosted the pandemic alert to the highest level, Phase 6, meaning that a pandemic is under way – the first time in 41 years that WHO has declared a pandemic.
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