The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu by one level, just two steps short of declaring a full-scale pandemic.
The alert level means the WHO believes the flu can be transmitted between humans to cause community-level outbreaks, but that it can still be contained before becoming a pandemic.
"A pandemic is not considered inevitable at this time," Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general, said.
"The situation is fluid and the situation continues to evolve."
Besides Mexico, swine flu cases have been reported from the United States, Canada and Europe.
Following talks in Geneva on Monday, the UN body announced that the alert over the flu, which is suspected of having killed more than 149 people in Mexico, had been raised to "phase 4".
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