Experts meet at WHO; Japan has 125 cases

GENEVA: The H1N1 flu strain is spreading fast in Japan and the world may be seeing an influenza pandemic unfold, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on yesterday.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the flu outbreak needed to be tackled with the utmost seriousness because there were still many unknowns about which path it will take.

"We are all under pressure to make urgent and far-reaching decisions in an atmosphere of considerable scientific uncertainty," she told her UN agency's World Health Assembly.