Swine flu toll climbs by around 500: WHO

The global death toll from swine flu approached the 16,000 mark as the pandemic waned in much of Europe and Asia, the World Health Organisation said Friday."As of 14 February 2010, worldwide more than 212 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 15,921 deaths," the WHO said in its latest update.The toll recorded since the A(H1N1) pandemic virus was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States last April grew by 629 compared to the previous week.

Swine flu has killed at least 12,799 people worldwide since it first emerged in Mexico in March 2009, the World Health Organisation said Friday.The latest data posted by the UN health agency marked an increase of 579 deaths from the previous update published nine days ago.The Americas continues to report the biggest number of casualties with at least 6,880 deaths while in Europe, at least 2,554 people have died from the A(H1N1) virus.

The number of swine flu deaths worldwide passed the 10,000 mark about eight months after the pandemic strain was uncovered in April, reaching 10,582, World Health Organisation data showed Friday."As of 13 December 2009, worldwide more than 208 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 10,582 deaths," the WHO said.In data for December 6 released a week ago, the death toll stood at 9,596.

More than 6,250 people have died in the swine flu pandemic, World Health Organisation data showed Friday, as the global death rate appeared to slow.The number of deaths from the A(H1N1) pandemic in the week to November 8 grew by about 179, against 224 a week earlier and a leap of about 700 in the last week of October.The pandemic now stretches across 206 countries or territories worldwide, the WHO added in a statement.

More than 6,250 people have died in the swine flu pandemic, World Health Organisation data showed Friday, as the global death rate appeared to slow.The number of deaths from the A(H1N1) pandemic in the week to November 8 grew by about 179, against 224 a week earlier and a leap of about 700 in the last week of October.The pandemic now stretches across 206 countries or territories worldwide, the WHO added in a statement on its website.

More than 11,500 people have died from swine flu worldwide since the pandemic strain was uncovered in April, World Health Organisation data showed Wednesday.The WHO said overall A(H1N1) influenza "activity has recently peaked in much of the (northern) hemisphere," including North America and western Europe, where the disease had surged in recent months with the onset of the colder season.

The World Health Organisation said Thursday that the swine flu pandemic virus would threaten again next winter in the northern hemisphere and recommended its inclusion in the regular influenza vaccine.Protection for two other seasonal strains should be incorporated along with the A(H1N1) pandemic strain that swept across the world last year, the UN health agency said after the biannual meeting of flu vaccine experts.

Senior World Health Organisation official Keiji Fukuda said Thursday that it was too early to declare the swine flu pandemic over, as it continues at "high levels" in parts of Europe and central Asia.Although the A(H1N1) flu virus is peaking in parts of the northern hemisphere and is hardly present in the south, Fukuda said there was an unproven possibility that there could be another wave later in the winter."It really probably remains too early to call the pandemic over," Fukuda said in a weekly telephone news conference.