GENEVA - The World Health Organisation wants to keep monitoring the spread of H1N1 flu before issuing guidance on the production of pandemic flu vaccines, a top WHO official said on Tuesday.
'We are in the process of the most basic development of the vaccine,' acting WHO assistant director-general Keiji Fukuda told a news briefing.
Work under way on candidate viruses will continue until the end of June or July, after which drug companies can start developing and testing H1N1 vaccines, according to Mr Fukuda.
The WHO expects to make recommendations about the best balance between H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccine-making 'sometime during the summer,' he said.
'We don't want to make recommendations too early because we are on a daily basis monitoring how the situation is evolving,' he said, later adding: 'We are still at the early stage of this pandemic and we have to see where it goes.'
Last week, the WHO said it had decided to revamp its six-point pandemic alert scale to better reflect how severe a circulating virus is, and not just the way it is spreading.
Mr Fukuda said the United Nations agency planned to convene scientists and public health experts within weeks to offer suggestions on how to adjust the pandemic definitions.
For now, he said the WHO was keeping its alert at Phase 5 which means a pandemic is 'imminent'.
It will look for 'large outbreaks with very large numbers of people' like those seen in Mexico or the United States before edging it to the top notch.
'That in and of itself could well be enough to take us up to pandemic Phase 6,' he said. -- REUTERS
