Several medical workers rest in the special wards area receiving a A/H1N1 flu case at a children's hospital in Managua, capital of Nicaragua, June 1, 2009. A five-year-old girl was confirmed to be the first A/H1N1 flu case in the country on June 1. [Xinhua/Cesar Perez]

As the A/H1N1 flu virus spreads further around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) is getting closer to declaring a full pandemic, a senior official of the UN agency said on Tuesday.

"Globally we believe that we are at phase 5, but we are getting closer to phase 6," said WHO Assistant Director-general Dr. Keiji Fukuda, referring to the WHO's six-phase pandemic alert system.

The new virus is causing more and more infections in countries outside of North America, notably in Britain, Spain, Japan, Australia and Chile, Fukuda told a news conference in Geneva.

"We still are waiting for evidence of really widespread community activity in these countries," he said.

According to the WHO's current pandemic alert system, phase 6 will mean the A/H1N1 flu virus causes sustained and community-level human-to-human transmission in regions outside of North America, so far the only region where community-level outbreak has been confirmed.

So far the virus has caused nearly 19,000 cases of infections in 64 countries and regions, including 117 deaths, the WHO said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2009)