WHO says world moving closer to Phase 6 flu

GENEVA (Reuters) - The spread of H1N1 flu in Australia, Britain, Chile, Japan and Spain has moved the world closer to the top pandemic alert, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

"We are at Phase 5 but are getting closer to Phase 6," Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director-general, told journalists during a telephone conference.

"There are a number of countries that appear to be in transition, moving from travel-related cases to more established community types of spread," he said.

"Some of these countries are the countries that you have been following for quite a while, but they include countries such as the UK and Spain in Europe, Japan in Asia, Chile in South America and also Australia."

According to the WHO's latest figures, the new influenza strain, also known as swine flu, has been found in 64 countries, and remains most prevalent in North America. WHO laboratories have confirmed nearly 19,000 infections including 117 people who have died.

Fukuda said those figures might not show the full reach of the contagious disease that has afflicted young people more than normal seasonal flu, and has caused mainly mild symptoms as it has spread around the world.

"We don't know the full number of people who are infected across the entire spectrum," Fukuda said.

"We do have some hesitation in calling such an infection mild. The future impact of this infection has yet to unfold."

The WHO is working on revamping its six-point pandemic scale so that the top alert reflects the severity of the flu and not just the geographical pattern of its spread.