WHO: Still premature to announce end of swine flu peak in world

GENEVA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- World Health Organization (WHO) experts have decided after Tuesday's assessment that it was still early to pronounce the H1N1 swine flu pandemic as having peaked in all parts of the world.

The emergency committee advised that it was premature to conclude that all parts of the world have experienced peak transmission of the H1N1 pandemic influenza, said WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl, quoted by media reports.

The WHO is planning a press conference for Wednesday to announce the assessment result.

The spokesperson said that a final decision would be taken by WHO Secretary-General Margaret Chan.

Since April 2009, the flu spread from Mexico and the United States into 210 countries and regions with over 15,000 deaths confirmed by laboratories.

The WHO emergency committee on Tuesday held a confidential teleconference and the result of the conference will be made public on Wednesday after having been issued to health officials in the WHO member states a day earlier.

Reported cases of the flu were seen declining of late in most of the northern hemisphere as several countries have already been scaling down their costly precautions in recent weeks.