Flu pandemic officially over

THE World Health Organisation has declared the swine flu pandemic officially over, months after many national authorities started cancelling vaccine orders and shutting down hot lines as the disease ebbed from media headlines.

WHO director-general Margaret Chan said the organisation’s emergency committee of top flu experts advised her the pandemic had “largely run its course” and the world is no longer in phase six – the highest influenza alert level.

“I fully agree with the committee’s advice,” Chan told reporters in a telephone briefing from her native Hong Kong.