As the WHO notes, Level 5 -- the current level for swine flu -- indicates that the disease has spread from person to person and a pandemic is considered "imminent."
At this point, the WHO advises countries to be prepared for a possible pandemic.
A pandemic is not considered to be under way unless the pandemic alert level is raised to Level 6.
As the WHO notes on its Web site, "While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short."
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