Flu pattern worries global health experts

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - The H1N1 flu virus is likely to keep spreading rapidly between people, within countries and across the globe, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday.

U.S. health officials also expressed concern about who the new swine flu virus is infecting -- mostly children, teens and young adults -- and outbreaks in schools.

Ministers and experts began a meeting in Geneva to discuss how to fight the virus with vaccines and drugs, as well as what would trigger the WHO to declare a full pandemic.

"For the first time in humanity, we are seeing, or we may be seeing, pandemic influenza evolving in front of our eyes," WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan told her U.N. agency's World Health Assembly.

New York City recorded its first death from the virus and Chile reported two new cases, adding to its first two cases reported on Sunday. Japan also confirmed that 125 people, many of whom had not been abroad, had been infected with the new strain.

Tests confirmed the first case in Greece, a Greek man traveling from the United States, the Health Ministry said.

Forty countries have confirmed cases of the new strain. Almost all of the 74 dead were in Mexico, but mostly, people have had relatively mild symptoms.

Addressing the WHO's annual congress, Tonga's health minister said it was lucky the H1N1 strain had spread first to affluent countries such as the United States, Canada, and Japan.