The World Health Organization on Monday launched a strategy to protect people worldwide over the next decade against the threat of influenza, warning that new pandemics are "inevitable". WHO's new strategy, for 2019 through 2030, aims to prevent seasonal influenza, control the virus's spread from animals to humans and prepare for the next pandemic, WHO said. "The threat of pandemic influenza is ever-present," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. Three pandemics have occurred since -- in 1957, 1968 and in 2009 -- when the H1N1 swine flu pandemic claimed around 18,500 lives in 214 countries. WHO recommends annual flu vaccines as the most effective way to prevent the spread of the disease, especially for healthcare workers and people at higher risk of influenza complications.

Source: bd News24 March 11, 2019 14:37 UTC