NEWS - EU NEWS

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is expected to downgrade the H1N1 influenza pandemic when its emergency committee meets next week.

This Committee would then declare an end to the pandemic which officially began over a year ago, in June 2009, when the WHO raised the alert level to phase six on its six-point scale.

“Worldwide, overall pandemic influenza activity remains low," the WHO said in its latest weekly update last Friday, although the virus continues to be transmitted in parts of South Asia, West Africa and Central America.

Following criticism that officials overreacted to the outbreak, the WHO is reviewing its guidelines on what constitutes a pandemic.

This, says Regional Director for Europe, Zsuzsanna Jakab, is likely to result in a more sophisticated system which takes account of the severity of the illness rather than focusing solely on its geographical spread.