Spokesman: WHO may raise alert to highest level

A World Health Organization spokesman says the agency may raise its pandemic level to its highest alert, signifying a swine flu pandemic. WHO uses a six-level scale to assess the world's risk.

Last Wednesday, the agency raised the level to 5. Level 6 means a global outbreak of swine flu is under way. WHO spokesman Dick Thompson says Monday the direction WHO will take "will be dictated by the virus."

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais published Monday, WHO chief Margaret Chan implies the agency might raise the level to 6, but cautions that "Level 6 does not mean...we are coming near to the end of the world."

Without that explanation, Chan worries, raising to level 6 could cause "unnecessary panic."