THE World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging the planet to brace for a second wave of the swine flu pandemic as the heavily populated northern hemisphere edges towards the cooler season when flu thrives.
"The WHO is still mobilised and worried," spokesman Gregory Hartl said as the global health watchdog kept an anxious eye on some "mysterious" patterns of illness associated with the new A(H1N1) virus that appeared in April.
Influenza traditionally surges to its peak during the northern autumn and winter.
WHO Director General Margaret Chan warned on Friday that there had been second and third waves in previous pandemics.
"We cannot say for certain whether the worst is over or the worst is yet to come," Chan said in a videotaped address to a symposium on flu in the Asia-Pacific region.
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