The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the world was on the verge of an official swine flu pandemic, saying it was working to prepare countries for raising its alarm to the highest level.
Under the WHO's guidelines, one key criteria for declaring a pandemic would be established community spread in a country outside the first region in which the disease was initially reported, in this case, outside the Americas. Its six-level pandemic alert scale remains unchanged at phase five, signalling that a pandemic is "imminent."
According to WHO figures on Tuesday, more than 27,000 infections including 140 deaths have been reported from 73 countries.
Experts however say there is no suggestion yet that the flu outbreak has taken a life of its own, while pharmaceutical firms race to find a vaccine and the WHO warns the world to be ready for the H1N1 flu to become more severe.
From ChannelNewsAsia.com - Thursday, 11-Jun-2009
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