Pandemics

What is a pandemic? A pandemic is a viral strain that is extremely contagious that most people do not have the immunity to. This enables the virus to be spread throughout the world with relative ease. Interestingly enough, many people do not know what a pandemic is, it is the seventh most looked up word in the online dictionary. The most popular type of pandemic is the flu. There are 6 phases of a pandemic:

Phase 1 — No new influenza virus has been found in people or animals.
Phase 2 — New virus has appeared in animals, but no human cases.
Phase 3 — A new strain of animal influenza virus infects humans, but there have not been human-to-human infections.
Phase 4 — The new virus passes from person to person, but transmission is limited and confined to a certain location.
Phase 5 — There is frequent transmission of the virus between people in a particular place, but it hasn’t spread to the rest of the world.
Phase 6 — Pandemic. The virus is widespread worldwide.

The most common pandemics may be the flu, but the top five most deadly pandemics have been, the Peloponnesian War Pestilence, the Antonine Plague, the Plauge of Justinian, The Black Death, and the Spanish Flu.

At the height of a pandemic, as much as 40 percent of the workforce will be out with the disease. When a pandemic occurs, businesses have to plan for it because it affects communications. If a business doesn’t plan well, they could see their sales and profit plummet. Simple solutions have been installed to stop the spread of pandemics such as the flu around businesses like washing your hands after touching something. Some businesses have even gone as far as making their employees where masks while they have a cold so no sicknesses spread around the office.

The most recent pandemic was the H1N1 virus in 2009. The virus was more commonly called the “swine flu.” The Swine Flu was detected in Mexico City June of 2009. By the end of the month, President Obama had declared the Swine Flu a pandemic. The symptoms of the swine flu were the same as the regular flu, fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue . The people who were most at risk were the extremely young and the old. Here is a video about the H1N1 virus: