A World Health Organization committee will meet later this month to examine whether the A/H1N1 flu pandemic has reached a post-peak period, a senior WHO official said Thursday.

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's special adviser on pandemic influenza, said the emergency committee of international scientists would meet late this month but no date has yet been set.

The task of the committee is to assess the epidemiological situation concerning the flu outbreak and advise WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, who declared a pandemic in June based on the panel's recommendation.

The A/H1N1 virus was first identified in Mexico in April 2009. More than 211 countries and overseas territories or communities so far have reported laboratory confirmed cases of the flu, including more than 15,000 deaths.

The outbreak, however, has recently showed an overall declining pattern in the northern hemisphere.

(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2010)