it's official - H1N1 Swine Flu is now a pandemic

Well, it's officially a pandemic now:

The World Health Organization today declared the global outbreak of the novel H1N1 influenza virus to be in Phase 6 -- a full-scale pandemic.

The announcement essentially warns WHO's 194 member nations to expect the arrival of the new flu strain, which is likely to infect up to one-third of the population in the first wave and return in later waves over the next several years.

As of yesterday, WHO reported there had been 27,737 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 141 deaths, in 74 countries. Experts believe, however, that the actual number of infections is far higher.

The declaration of Phase 6 does not by itself initiate any particular action, nor does it predict the ultimate severity of the pandemic, which is likely to vary considerably among regions, ages, ethnic groups and economic strata.

It bears repeating that this classification is more about preparation than anything else - the flu so far has been mild but it has potential to be much worse, and pandemic simply means that the transmission threat is global. Theres no reason to run screaming in panicked fear, but neither should we relax our preparations for the worst-case scenario.

Related - PandemicFlu.gov, the govt website to get more swine flu information. They are also on Twitter at @BirdFluGov.