WHO Considers moving to Phase 6

[sunfell]

This isn't a done deal yet, but it looks like the World Health Organization (WHO) is on the verge of going to full pandemic mode, Phase 6 on its pandemic scale. It is at Phase 5 right now.

The World Health Organization is likely to raise its flu alert to the top of its six-point scale and declare a pandemic, its director-general indicated in an interview published on Monday.

In remarks setting the scene for another alert increase, but without saying when, WHO chief Margaret Chan warned against over-confidence following a stabilization in the number of new cases of the H1N1 strain that has proved deadly in Mexico.

"Level 6 does not mean, in any way, that we are facing the end of the world. It is important to make this clear because (otherwise) when we announce level 6 it will cause an unnecessary panic," she told Spanish newspaper El Pais.

"Flu viruses are very unpredictable, very deceptive ... We should not be over-confident. One must not give H1N1 the opportunity to mix with other viruses. That is why we are on alert."

The WHO's pandemic phases reflect views about how a virus is spreading, and not how severe its effects are.

While flu season is ending in the northern hemisphere, it is just starting in the southern hemisphere, leading to fears that things will crank back up in the fall.