10 Questions for Dr. Shigeru Omi

Shortly after health experts met last week in Kuala Lumpur to craft a plan to control avian flu, Dr. Shigeru Omi, Regional Director for the World Health Organization's (WHO) Western Pacific region, spoke with TIME's Bryan Walsh about the challenge of fighting a highly unpredictable virus, the need to harness international resources, and the terrible toll a human pandemic would take.

Are we closer to a flu pandemic than ever before?
The virus is already entrenched in this part of the world, number one. Second, the number of human cases is on the rise, particularly...