WHO emergency committee reviewing pandemic status

Influenza experts met by teleconference today to assess whether the H1N1 outbreak should be downgraded from its pandemic status, a spokesperson for the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

The emergency committee will advise the WHO, a United Nations agency, and its director-general Margaret Chan after reviewing epidemiological data about current cases, especially from the southern hemisphere, spokesperson Gregory Hartl said.

"The emergency meeting is still going on," he said.

In June 2009, the WHO declared that a new swine flu virus, the H1N1, which emerged in the United States and Mexico, was causing the first pandemic in more than 40 years. A full pandemic corresponds to phase 6 on the WHO's six-point scale.

Experts will advise Chan on whether the world is still in a pandemic or has moved either to a "post-peak" or "post-pandemic" phase, Hartl said. They will analyse the current level of infections in the southern hemisphere, where it is winter, and examine whether H1N1 is behaving more like a seasonal flu.

"In all likelihood there will be an announcement today," Hartl said.

Tuesday's closed-door session, which was not announced, is being with the participation of Chan, who is in her native Hong Kong. John MacKenzie, an Australian expert, chairs the committee of 15 external international experts.