Report says more swine flu cases than reported, rapid spread justified warnings

July 17th, 2009 LONDON — The World Health Organization says it will stop counting individual cases of swine flu. Tracking individual swine flu cases is too overwhelming for countries where the virus is spreading widely, the agency says in a statement.

June 22nd, 2009 WHO: 51 more swine flu deaths as pandemic spreadsGENEVA — The World Health Organization says the global tally of deaths from swine flu has increased by 51 to 231. WHO says most of the latest deaths occurred in the United States.

June 12th, 2009 US swine flu cases grow to nearly 18,000ATLANTA — Nearly 5,000 new U.S. swine flu cases have been reported in the last week, due partly to its continuing spread in the Northeast.

June 3rd, 2009 WHO: Swine flu cases worldwide near 20,000GENEVA — The World Health Organization says the number of swine flu cases worldwide has reached 19,273 after the United States reported over 1,000 new infections. WHO says the virus has been confirmed in 66 countries, with Egypt and Nicaragua the latest to report one case each.

May 22nd, 2009 GENEVA - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that 41 countries have officially reported 11,168 cases of influenza A (H1N1), known also as swine flu, including 86 deaths. The US had 5,764 cases, with nine deaths, while Mexico had 3,892 infections, including 75 deaths.

May 11th, 2009 Rapid spread of swine flu justified warningsWASHINGTON — The number of cases of swine flu may have been several times higher than reported and the potential for rapid spread of the illness justified the World Health Organization's decision to raise the global pandemic alert, a new study concludes. While about 4,800 confirmed cases have been reported in 30 countries, the new analysis estimates there have been between 6,000 and 32,000 cases in Mexico alone.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The number of swine flu cases has jumped to 2,532 in 44 US states, with three deaths, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said. In its latest report Sunday, the CDC said the state of Illinois has confirmed 466 cases of the A(H1N1) flu, followed by Wisconsin with 357 cases, California with 282 cases.

May 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A man suffering heart problems died of complications from the influenza A (H1N1) flu strain. It was the third human swine flu fatality reported in the US so far, according to the Seattle Times newspaper.

May 6th, 2009 GENEVA - The World Health Organization (WHO) Wednesday confirmed 1,516 cases of the influenza A(H1N1) virus, which is better known as swine flu, in 22 countries. Mexico reported 822 laboratory-confirmed cases, including 29 deaths, the US had 403 confirmed infections, including two deaths, and Canada reported 165 cases, the UN health agency on its website.

May 3rd, 2009 STOCKHOLM/GENEVA - The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in the European Union has now risen to 49, spread over about half a dozen countries, EU health officials reported Sunday. The EU's centre for disease control (ECDC) in Stockholm said ten new confirmed cases had been reported in Germany, Spain, Ireland and Italy, in addition to nine new suspected cases in Britain and Portugal.

May 1st, 2009 TORONTO - With 15 news cases of swine flu taking the nation's total to 34, Canadian authorities have said they will start an awareness campaign Friday to stem the spread of the virus. Of the 15 new cases reported Thursday, five were in British Columbia province, four each in Alberta and Nova Scotia provinces and one each in Ontario and Quebec provinces.

April 30th, 2009 GENEVA - A total of 148 confirmed swine flu cases have been reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UN agency said. As of Wednesday, the cases were reported from nine countries, including 91 from the US with one death, and 26 from Mexico, with seven deaths, the agency said in its latest update.

April 29th, 2009 MEXICO CITY - The toll in Mexico's suspected swine flu cases has risen to 159, said Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova. 'With the information available up to now, we can confirm that there are 159 deaths registered as suspect cases,' he told reporters late Tuesday.

April 28th, 2009 MEXICO CITY - Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said late Monday that the number of people dying from an infection with the mutated swine flu virus rose slower than expected. Six people died on Saturday, five on Sunday and three Monday, Cordova said.

April 27th, 2009 WHO: 40 confirmed swine flu cases in US, no deathsGENEVA — The World Health Organization says there are now 40 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States and that it "very concerned" about the disease's spread. WHO says none of the cases in the U.S.