The World Health Organisation will on Friday consult its emergency flu committee of experts on whether the agency should declare a fully-fledged pandemic, a spokeswoman said.
"The emergency committee has been convened today from 2 to 3 pm," said Fadela Chaib, adding that the agenda of the committee, would be on the "severity of H1N1 and also to review international health-related measures."
The total number of swine flu cases has soared to 21,939 and the WHO has so far held back from declaring a full-fledged swine flu pandemic after raising its six-grade alert level to five at the end of April, signalling that a pandemic was imminent.
