Infectious Diseases
Pandemic Alerts

Pandemic Alerts

Advice for staff travelling to affected areas

Advice for staff planning to cover stories on outbreaks overseas

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Handwashing

Advice for expatriates living in affected areas

Advice for deploying managers

Common Questions

Key Points

The World Health Organisation (WHO) uses a series of six phases of pandemic alert as a system for informing the world of the seriousness of the threat and of the need to launch progressively more intense preparedness activities (see below):

WHO Phases

Inter-pandemic period	No new influenza virus subtypes have been detected in humans. An influenza virus subtype that has caused human infection may be present in animals. If present in animals, the risk of human infection or disease is considered to be low.	1
Inter-pandemic period	No new influenza virus subtypes have been detected in humans. However, a circulating animal influenza virus subtype poses a substantial risk of human disease.	2
Pandemic Alert Period	Human infection(s) with a new subtype, but no new human-to-human spread, or at most rare instances of spread to a close contact	3
	Small cluster(s) with limited human-to-human transmission but spread is highly localised, suggesting that the virus is not well adapted to humans	4
	Large cluster(s) but human-to-human spread still localised, suggesting that the virus is becoming increasingly better adapted to humans, but may not yet be fully transmissible (substantial pandemic risk).	5
Pandemic period	Pandemic phase: increased and sustained transmission in the general population	6

The designation of phases is made by the WHO, and each phase coincides with a series of recommended activities to be undertaken by WHO, the international community, governments, and industry.

The BBC will alter its activities (in the UK and overseas) based on the pandemic phase. The following guidance is for staff based or deploying to affected areas. UK broadcast continuity plans are covered separately.

Currently we are at Phase 3 of the WHO Pandemic alert scale, i.e. there are human infections with a new subtype, but no new human-to-human spread, or at most rare instances of spread to a close contact.

Infectious Diseases Pandemic Alerts

Infectious Diseases
Pandemic Alerts