"We are moving out of the pandemic into the post-pandemic period," said Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO.

Chan said that while several countries -- including India and New Zealand -- are still experiencing significant H1N1 flu transmission, out-of-season flu outbreaks are no longer being reported in the northern or southern hemispheres.

"This pandemic has turned out to have been much more fortunate than what we feared a little over a year ago," Chan told reporters in a news conference on August 10.

She attributed the end of the pandemic to several factors: that the virus did not mutate to a more lethal form, the H1N1 flu vaccine proved to be a good match and widespread resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu did not develop. "This time around, we have been aided by pure good luck," Chan said.

The WHO announced the global H1N1 pandemic June 11, 2009. A pandemic is a sudden outbreak of a disease that is spread by human transmission, which quickly becomes widespread and affects a large region or several countries.

The CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, said the U.S. Public Health emergency for H1N1 ended on June 23 of this year.