UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for global solidarity in dealing with the spreading A/H1N1 influenza.

"Global solidarity must be at the heart of the world's response to crisis," Ban said in an address to the ongoing 62nd World Health Assembly (WHA).

"Solidarity in the face of this particular outbreak must mean that all have access to drugs and vaccines. It means that virus samples and data are shared," he told health ministers and officials attending the annual meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s 193 members.

Ban also echoed WHO officials in urging the world to remain vigilant to a possible severe pandemic, although so far most human infections of the new virus have been mild.

"As previous pandemics have shown, the situation can unfold in stages -- what begins as mild in the first stage might be less so in the next," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2009)