Camp directors are preparing handwashing stations and hand sanitizer dispensers for children. (Donna McWilliam/Associated Press)

The H1N1 swine flu virus shows no signs of mixing with other influenza viruses, the head of the World Health Organization said Thursday.

Health officials are looking for any signs the pandemic virus could be combining with the deadlier H5N1 avian flu virus.

"The virus is still very stable," WHO director general Dr. Margaret Chan told a news conference in Moscow after meeting with Russian Health and Social Development Minister Tatiana Golikova.

"But as we all know the influenza virus is highly unpredictable and has great potential for mutation," she added.

WHO is also keeping tabs on whether H1N1 starts to mutate or shuffle its genetic material with seasonal influenza viruses in the Southern Hemisphere.

Planning vaccine roll out

At a meeting hosted by the Public Health Agency of Canada in Milton, Ont. on Thursday, pandemic experts met to identify their priorities heading into summer and fall.

Their challenge is keeping up with a virus that hasn't slowed down and trying to anticipate how it will continue to unfold.

The agenda includes how to track the virus, when to use antivirals and how to distribute a pandemic vaccine when it becomes available.

Canada's chief public health officer Dr. David Butler-Jones said the plan is to offer a vaccine against H1N1 to everyone who wishes to receive it.

"It's not slowing down so far," Butler-Jones said from Ottawa. "So actually getting at the planning, thinking about the decisions, looking at the options of how we will manage this is really critical."

Decisions still have to be made in the coming weeks about whether all population groups will need to be vaccinated, and in what order of priority.

Summer camps prepare

Meanwhile, camp directors are bracing for a potential onslaught of infections.

"If it makes its way in in any way, we'll do everything we can to contain it, and we believe we will," said Michael Pearse, director of Camp Tawingo in Huntsville, Ont.

The plan is to help keep hundreds of children living in close contact healthy by:

• Disinfecting surfaces.
• Installing new handwashing stations outside of dining halls .
• Setting up a temporary infirmary to isolate any children who may fall sick with swine flu.

Elsewhere on Thursday, Guatemala's health minister confirmed the country's first death from the H1N1 virus. The 35-year-old man from Cuilapa, Santa Rosa, in southeastern Guatemala was previously healthy.

He died this week after contracting the flu and failing to respond well to treatment, Health Minister Celso Cerezo told reporters.

As of Wednesday, WHO reported 55,867 confirmed cases worldwide, including 249 deaths.

Also as of Wednesday, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported 6,732 laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 flu virus in Canada, including 423 hospitalizations and 19 deaths to date.