BETHESDA, Maryland(AFP) (AFP) — A vaccine for swine flu could be ready for testing next month and ready for mass distribution by October, US health officials told a high-level meeting here Thursday.

"We hope to help evaluate the first candidate vaccine in early August," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told US government officials and hundreds of state, local and health representatives at the H1N1 Influenza Preparedness Summit here.

US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told the summit, which was called by the White House, that a vaccine could be ready for distribution by mid-October.

It would be purchased by the federal government and sent to state and tribal leaders for populations most in-need of protection from the virus, Sebelius said, pointing out that young people have been hard hit by swine flu.

A handful of pharmaceutical companies around the world are working to develop a vaccine against (A)H1N1 influenza, which the World Health Organization says has infected 100,000 people in 137 countries and territories, and caused 440 deaths around the world.

The worst hit countries are the United States, with 170 dead, and Mexico, where the outbreak began in April, with 121 people killed.