President Barack Obama "has always treated this as a very serious issue," said White House spokesman Bill Burton.

The World Health Organization's declaration "is more an issue of geography than intensity," Burton said.

"So our response will be as aggressive as it has been in making sure we're doing everything possible to mitigate its spread," he said.

The WHO declaration serves to "remind the world that flu viruses like H1N1 need to be taken seriously," said Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Even though there had not been large numbers of cases in the US "things could possibly be very different in the fall, especially if things change in the southern hemisphere," Sebelius said in a joint statement with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

"We need to start preparing now in order to be ready for a possible H1N1 immunization campaign starting in late September," Sebelius said.

As of Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 27 people had died of the swine flu in the US, and there were a total of 13,217 cases spread across all 50 states.

"We responded to the H1N1 outbreak from the outset with the presumption that a pandemic was likely, so this decision comes as no surprise," said Napolitano in the statement.

"We acted aggressively to stay ahead of the virus as it spread across the country. Now our challenge is to prepare for a possible return in the fall."

Napolitano added: "We are working with our scientists to test and prepare a possible vaccine. And we are working with governments around the world to share what we know and learn from what is happening in their countries."

The swine flu crisis has escalated into the world's first influenza pandemic in 40 years, the World Health Organization declared Thursday, after infecting tens of thousands of people in 74 countries.

But WHO director general Margaret Chan said in Geneva the declaration of a "moderate" pandemic should not be a cause for panic and did not mean the global death toll of 150 from the A(H1N1) virus would sharply increase.

The UN body said it was neither recommending the closure of borders nor restrictions in movement of people, goods and services in the wake of its declaration.

earlier related report
Canada probing severe flu outbreak in native communities
Canada is investigating possible outbreaks of the swine flu in its aboriginal communities, officials said Thursday, while downplaying concerns that natives were falling more seriously ill than others.

"This is a concern, and we are investigating," Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told a press conference.

"Since the outbreak of H1N1 began, our government has been working to ensure accurate and timely information gets to First Nations communities," she said.

Additional health staff and protective garments have been sent to several native communities, to review situations and determine how the virus reached the remote centers.

Canadian health officials, however, could not quantify the number of natives infected with the virus.

This week, WHO acting assistant director-general Keiji Fukuda raised concerns over "a disproportionate number of serious cases" occurring in Canada's aboriginal communities.

He said there were "a larger number than expected" cases of young natives who had developed a "serious illness" and "had to get hospitalized."

Canada's public health officer David Butler-Jones, however, downplayed the WHO's fears.

"This is not an indigenous disease," he said. "We know there are certain risk conditions, underlying chronic disease, etcetera, that make (some) at greater risk of disease or death."

But "to make conclusions based on a couple of communities that this is somehow a disease that is worse in among an ethnic group, it's much too early to make those kind of conclusions or presumptions," he said.

"It is a disease that affects everybody and we don't yet have the data to understand why some communities" may be hit harder, he added.

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