Pandemic Levels -what changes between levels

BESSER:  Thanks, Helen (ph).  As I said, the analyses of the – of the virus are preliminary.  We’ve been looking at one part of the virus, and what we’re seeing in that part of the virus is similarity.  But the more detailed analysis of the whole genome has not taken place.

In terms of the scale up for vaccine, what we have done is created a feed stock for this virus which is something we do whenever we see a new novel strain of influenza that cause disease, and then as part of that we would need to explore with the manufacturers what it would take to be able to scale up vaccine production.  At this point we have not made any decisions regarding the need for manufacturing of vaccine, but we thought it was prudent to develop that feed stock.

BRANSWELL (ph):  Can I ask a follow-up question?

BESSER:  Sure.

BRANSWELL (ph):  What pandemic threat level are we actually at today?

BESSER:  So far there has not been any change in the pandemic threat level.  The World Health Organization will be looking at the situation that’s occurring in Mexico and will be convening – most likely convening their group of experts to address that situation.  As Dr. Shook (ph) had talked about yesterday, there are really three things we want to look for when we’re thinking about whether a virus is causing a new pandemic.  One is is it new?  In order to cause a pandemic, you need a virus to which the majority of the population does not have protection or immunity.  Does it cause severe disease?  There are probably new viruses that appear all the time that don’t cause severe disease, but with an influenza virus, one of the factors we look at is the severity of disease.  And then the third factor is whether it’s easily transmissible and sustainable in a population.  So those are the three factors that WHO would be considering when they look at the threat level.