Emergency Panel Of Swine Flu Experts To Meet Regarding The Pandemic

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday, that its emergency panel of swine flu experts will be meeting this month in order to formally determine whether the pandemic has passed its peak. The emergency committee of specialists, will likely meet in the last week of February, and it works to provide WHO with definitive scientific guidance on severe health threats.

According to Keiji Fukuda, special advisor to the WHO director general on Pandemic Influenza, “WHO will be asking the emergency committee to convene later this month to review the situation and provide the WHO with guidance on whether we are entering a post peak period …What we are hoping for is that the worst is behind us.”

According to the UN health agency, the Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic was generally tailing off in most parts of the world, and appeared to be entering a transitional period.

Fukuda however cautioned that there could be no abrupt end to the pandemic alert that was triggered last year. He added that “We may be seeing a general decline in pandemic activity but the pandemic itself has not yet run its full course.”

According to the WHO, more than 15,000 people have died worldwide from the new Influenza A (H1N1) strain since it was uncovered in Mexico and the United States in April 2008. It has swept around the world, impacting at least 211 countries and territories.

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