WHO declares H1N1 official flu pandemic - 11 Jun 09?

The World Health Organization said that H1N1 flu had become a worldwide problem on June 11, 2009.

What is a Pandemic?

Imagine you're playing with your friends in the park. Suddenly, one of them sneezes and everyone starts to feel sick. That’s like a flu outbreak, it spreads quickly among people who are close together.

But a pandemic is when this sickness goes all around the world, like a big game of tag that never ends. It doesn’t just affect one country or city, it affects many, and it keeps spreading for a long time.

What is H1N1?

H1N1 is a kind of flu virus, also called “swine flu.” It’s like a sneaky guest who comes into your house and makes everyone cough and sniffle. This particular guest started in pigs and then moved to people, kind of like how you might catch a cold from your brother if he sneezes on you.

When the World Health Organization said H1N1 was a pandemic, it meant this sneaky virus had traveled all around the world and was making a lot of people sick, just like a big flu party that everyone joined.

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Examples

  1. A kid in school gets sick and starts spreading the flu to everyone else, like H1N1 did in 2009.
  2. The WHO is like a team of doctors who decided that the flu was so bad it became a pandemic.
  3. H1N1 was a new type of flu that made people all over the world get sick at the same time.

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Categories: Science · H1N1· pandemic· WHO