SYDNEY (Reuters) - The World Health Organization is poised to declare a global influenza pandemic after a spike in H1N1 cases in Australia, where five people have been admitted to intensive care and 1,263 cases of “swine flu” recorded.

A man walks into the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) in Melbourne June 11, 2009. The World Health Organisation is poised to declare a global influenza pandemic after a spike in H1N1 cases in Australia, where five people have been admitted to intensive care units and 1,263 cases of "swine flu" recorded. The VIDRL is Melbourne's largest public health reference laboratory with core responsibilities in virology and mycobacteriology. REUTERS/Mick Tsikas

Australian authorities on Thursday defended their handling of the flu virus, saying the high number of cases was a result of widespread testing.

“We have tested 5,500 people in the last two weeks, that is more people than we test in our whole (normal) influenza season,” said Victorian state premier John Brumby.

“Elsewhere around the world, in the United States and Canada, they are only testing the most serious cases,” said Brumby.

The WHO will hold an emergency meeting of experts on Thursday to discuss the spreading virus in a sign the U.N. agency may be poised to declare the first pandemic in more than 40 years.

There have been 27,737 cases reported in 74 countries to date, including 141 deaths, according to the WHO’s latest tally.

PANDEMIC ALERT

Confirmed community spread in a second region beyond North America would trigger moving to phase 6 -- signifying a full-blown pandemic -- from the current phase 5 on the WHO’s 6-level pandemic alert scale.

“We are pretty certain we are seeing that,” Peter Cordingley, spokesman for WHO in the Western Pacific, told Australian radio.

Australia has the fifth-highest number of H1N1 flu cases worldwide, after the United States, Mexico, Canada and Chile.

Its first H1N1 case was announced on May 9, with a woman in the tropical northern state of Queensland testing positive after returning from Los Angeles.

Australia’s government has ordered 10 million doses of swine flu vaccine being developed by pharmaceutical company CSL Ltd.

The country has implemented standard health procedures to stop the spread of H1N1, such as thermal scanning at airports, quarantining those diagnosed and issuing hygiene warnings.

But some health experts say Australian authorities have failed to control the spread of H1N1 due to a lack of co-ordination between national and state health officials.

“The message given to people was that this was not a serious disease and people have not complied with quarantine guidelines. People have gone to work sick. People have not taken it seriously,” James Schluter, a biochemist with law firm Holding Redlich, told Reuters.