Jakarta- South-East Asian nations are working together to deal with swine flu amid fears the disease could spread to the region, the Association of South-East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) said Thursday. "I am now also coordinating with all ASEAN ministers of health in order to provide the necessary cooperation and support," ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said in a statement.

Ten-member ASEAN has 500,000 courses of the Tamiflu and Relenza antivirals stockpiled in Singapore and an additional 500,000 courses have been distributed to ASEAN member states, the statement said.

"We have established a system to draw down the stockpile in the event there is a pandemic," Surin said. "The ASEAN Secretariat is in full alert 24 hours a day, seven days a week to anticipate any request for the antiviral drugs by the member states."

ASEAN was also arranging for a teleconference with the region's health officials to review preventive measures being taken by its members and the need to discuss issues such as surveillance, quarantine and border control.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The World Health Organization has upgraded its pandemic alert level to phase 4, which means sustained human-to-human transmissions are occurring, after a swine-flu outbreak in Mexico. At least 159 people have died from flu infections there recently, and seven of those deaths were confirmed as stemming from swine flu.

There have been no known human cases of swine flu in South-East Asia.

In Thailand, lab tests conducted on a 42-year-old woman who was quarantined after showing swine-flu-like symptoms have shown her to be free of the virus, hospital officials said.(dpa)