Geneva - The World Health Organization, following proposals made Monday by member-states, would allow for flexibilities in its pandemic influenza alert system. The system- currently at Phase 5, the second highest- had been designed to track the geographic spread of an virus, like the new influenza A(H1N1).
It would be triggered to go to Phase 6 if sustained human-to-human transmissions were confirmed in a second region of the world.
Currently, the WHO has said such transmissions were only in North America.
The announcement by WHO Director-General Margaret Chan on the flexibility came following requests by some health ministers, lead by the British Alan Johnson, at a special high-level session on the virus during the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
"I will follow your instructions closely, particularly concerning criteria for a move to phase 6," Chan later told delegates.
Among the concerns of ministers was that the system did take into account virulence and the size of a spread within a single country. Also, some felt the system was causing undue panic among people who did not understand it.
The WHO has insisted concern is justified as the virus, though mild, might just be in a "grace period."
"No one can say whether this is just the calm before the storm," Chan said.
With the spectre of the swine flu still looming, the annual assembly, the ministerial level body of the WHO, opened Monday morning in Geneva.
A packed special session on swine flu, as the virus is also known, included addresses by the health ministers of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Members of the Group of 7 industrialized nations (G7) would meet Tuesday, along with Mexico, to discuss the virus.
The latest WHO world tally showed 8,829 cases of human infection, including 74 deaths. About 95 per cent of the cases were in North America and a large majority of the deaths were in Mexico.
Chan said her organization was still working on gathering more information on the virus.
"We need information, at many levels of science, clinical medicine and epidemiology," Chan said.
Richard Bessler, from the US Center for Disease Control, spoke of the importance of vigilance in monitoring the virus.
"The outbreak is not over," he said.
Bessler and his Canadian counterpart noted that most infections in their region were in young people, as opposed to seasonal flu which hits the elderly harder.
The virus was "likely to spread worldwide," the CDC head said.
The first scientific data on a vaccine, Bessler reported, would likely be made available by
