GENEVA (Reuters) – Influenza experts held previously unannounced talks on Tuesday to assess whether the H1N1 outbreak should be downgraded from its pandemic status, a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

The Emergency Committee will advise the WHO, a United Nations agency, and its director-general Margaret Chan, after reviewing epidemiological data about current cases, especially from the southern hemisphere, spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
The experts' discussions by teleconference were shrouded in secrecy but Hartl said their conclusions would probably be released later.
In June 2009, the WHO declared that a new swine flu virus, H1N1, which emerged in the United States and Mexico, was causing the first pandemic in more than 40 years. A full pandemic corresponds to phase 6 on the WHO's six-point scale for measuring the spread of a disease.
Experts will advise Chan on whether the world is still in a pandemic or has moved either to a “post-peak” or “post-pandemic” phase, Hartl said.
They will analyze the current level of infections in the southern hemisphere, where it is winter, and examine whether H1N1 is behaving more like a seasonal flu.
The WHO's assessment of whether the disease is a pandemic or not is important for national health authorities, and would affect government plans to stockpile and distribute vaccines.
Dozens of companies make influenza vaccines, including Sanofi-Avenits, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, AstraZeneca and CSL.
The WHO, in its latest weekly update issued last Friday, said: “Globally, pandemic influenza transmission remains most active in parts of South Asia and in limited areas of tropical South and Central America. In the temperate zone of the southern hemisphere, overall seasonal and pandemic influenza activity remains low, except in South Africa...”
In Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, and Australia, “overall influenza activity remains low and below levels observed during recent, mild, pre-pandemic influenza seasons,” it added.
More than 18,449 people worldwide are confirmed to have died from H1N1 infections, including many pregnant women and young people. But the WHO says that it will take at least a year after the pandemic ends to determine the true death toll, which is likely to be much higher.
Tuesday's session was held with the participation of Chan, who is in her native Hong Kong. John MacKenzie, an Australian expert, chairs the committee of 15 external international experts.
The identities of the experts apart from MacKenzie are kept secret to shield them from influence from the pharmaceutical industry, governments and other interest groups.