New Delhi, Apr 6: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday, Apr 6, admitted that Swine Flu scare was exaggerated by several countries, including India.

Speaking to reporters, Samlee Plianbangchang, regional director of WHO southeast Asia, said, "Yes, it was."

Samlee was replying to a question when asked on whether H1N1 scare was exaggerated by the global health watchdog.

However, WHO authorities declined to comment whether the hype was created by the global health agency to benefit pharmaceutical companies.

The UN health watchdog declared Influenza A (H1N1) as a pandemic in 2009 after the disease broke out across the globe.

India has already expressed its displeasure and demanded an investigation into 'unnecessary scare' created by the WHO.

Minister of state for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Trivedi has said that it was important to find out whether there was ever a nexus between pharmaceutical companies and WHO which made the global health watchdog declare H1N1 flu a pandemic virus.

Over 30,000 people were infected since May 2009 till date in India. Of these, 1,465 people have died till Apr 5, 2010. But going by the WHO forecasts, over 33 crore people were expected to be afflicted by the virus.

OneIndia News