Geneva - The World Health Organization was Tuesday holding a an online conference of over 150 scientists from various regions to discuss the nature of the new influenza A (H1N1) virus.

The scientists and medics, including many from North America, the epicentre of the epidemic, will discuss the severity of the virus and which groups are most vulnerable.

Also Tuesday, the WHO was to begin shipping 2.4 million doses of anti-viral drugs to its regional stockpiles and to some 72 countries. So far, the UN has said it would give doses to Mexico, but would not name other nations set to receive the drugs.

Meanwhile, the UN's health agency updated the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of the new virus to 1,124 human infections in 21 countries.

Many of the new confirmed cases were from Canada, which had a total of 140. Mexico, hardest-hit country, had 590, including 25 deaths, while the United States reported 286 cases, including one death.

In Europe, Spain led with 54 cases while Britain now had 18 confirmed infections.

The scientific forum would be arranged via teleconference, WHO spokeswoman in Geneva Fadela Chiab said.

While the last scientific meet led to the WHO raising its pandemic influenza alert up one level to phase 5, Chiab said there was "no link" between the meeting and the alert level.

While the alert system tracks geographic spread it does not contain levels for the severity of the disease. So far, the new virus has shown itself to be mostly mild but fatal in some cases.

The WHO repeated its recommendations that travel bans and border closures would not stop the spread of the virus but would be "highly disruptive to the global community."

The long incubation period of the disease, which could be up to six days, and its geographic spread would make travel restrictions ineffective, officials have said.

"Everything we decide is based on evidence and science," said Chiab.

Also, the organization reiterated its recommendation that the virus could not be contracted by eating pork products, provided they were properly prepared and cooked. (dpa)