CRI听力：Confirmed Swine Flu Cases Worldwide Exceeds 250

WHO has raised its alert level to Phase 5, the second-highest, indicating a pandemic may be imminent, and was talking about moving to Phase 6.(www.hXen.com)

Keiji Fukuda is the Assistant Director General for Health Security and Environment of WHO.

"I think it's particularly important now to pay attention to what is going on in the southern hemisphere. Even when you have the introduction of a new influenza virus as we are seeing now, it still usually follows some kind of seasonal activity, so it is possible we will see outbreaks of the H1N1 virus occurring more frequently in the southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere."

In the US, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday that the number of swine flu cases in the United States was 109 spread over 11 states.

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York said the government's bottom line is to continue to vigilantly monitor every possible incident as we have done from the very beginning.

"Most of the cases we have seen continue to be mild and most of the people who have caught the flu continue to recover. We are still not sure why the cases of swine flu here have been less serious than they have been in Mexico; it may very well be a difference in reporting."

Mexico City announced on Thursday that the swine flu outbreak in Mexico appeared to be stabilizing. City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.

"Statistics are telling us that we are heading towards a stabilisation phase, that will have to be confirmed tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday."

Confirmed swine flu cases have doubled to 99 in Mexico. The country announced it would temporarily suspend all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business from May 1-5.

Meanwhile France had urged the European Union to suspend all flights to Mexico, the "zero ground" of the deadly virus. But the EU ministers didn't agree on the proposal, nor did they issue any travel warning against Mexico, as most of the countries have doubted the effectiveness of such a ban in containing the further spread of the flu.

EU's disease control agency said on Thursday that the number of European countries with confirmed cases of the disease had risen to six as the Netherlands joined Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and France.

WHO also announced it will stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. Instead it would refer to a deadly new virus strain as influenza A, or H1N1 but not swine flu.