A top official of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday says the swine flu alert will reach its highest level.
The highest level is phase 6, and the flu is currently on phase 5.
The official, Michael Yan, who is WHO’s Director of Global Alert and Response, said in a statement that “the rate of growth of confirmed H1N1 infections has slowed, but
the disease is nevertheless spreading”.
He said: “At the present time, I would still propose that a pandemic is imminent because we are seeing the disease spread”.
He also stated that “at this point, we have to expect that Phase 6 will be reached; we have to hope that it is not reached”.
:ast Wednesday, WHO raised the alert to Phase 5. It is learnt that phase 6 would be called when the UN health agency observes evidence of sustained person-to-person
transmission of H1N1 outside North America.
WHO said on Saturday that the number of laboratory confirmed cases worldwide was 705, with 180 of those cases in the U.S