WHO set to declare new-flu pandemic+

GENEVA, June 11 Kyodo -
(EDS: UPDATING INFO IN LEAD, 3RD GRAF)
World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan told diplomats in
Geneva on Thursday that the U.N. health body will raise its alert level for the
new strain of influenza to the highest level of phase 6, a diplomatic source
said.

If the alert level is raised, it would be the first global pandemic since the
Hong Kong influenza in 1968 that killed one million people worldwide.
WHO sources said that an emergency meeting over the phone Thursday recommended
that Chan raise the alert level.
The new flu has spread rapidly from Mexico to numerous countries and regions
including the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia, and more than 27,000
cases of infection, including 142 deaths, had been reported in 74 countries as
of Thursday.
The U.N. health body raised the alert level for the flu to phase 5 on April 29.
Phase 6 indicates sustained community spread of the virus in at least two
regions of the world, while phase 5 indicates human-to-human spread of the
virus to at least two countries in one region.
WHO sources have said that even with the alert level raised, the WHO is not
planning to advise countries to close borders or impose travel restrictions.
The WHO has also been considering setting a scale for assessing the severity of
the flu and designating the current outbreak as ''moderate'' as the new flu is
less virulent than H5N1 avian flu, they said.
Vaccines to fight the new flu are expected to be produced in greater amounts
and are likely to be distributed widely by this fall.
==Kyodo