EUR: Global flu tally over 7,700 says European health agency
15 May 2009 6:34 PM
STOCKHOLM, May 15 DPA - The number of global cases of the new influenza A(H1N1) virus topped 7,700 worldwide, according to figures released on Friday by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The pan-European agency tallied 7,709 global cases including 234 in Europe.
The United States reported 4,298 cases. These included probable cases since US authorities as of Thursday included probable cases in their estimates, the ECDC said.
In Panama the number of cases rose to 39. Colombia had 10, Brazil and Costa Rica each had eight cases, El Salvador had four, while Cuba had three cases, according to the ECDC.
>From the Asia and Pacific region, New Zealand raised the number of reported cases to nine AND Malaysia reported its first case.
The influenza has to date claimed 69 lives of which 64 were in Mexico, three in the United States, and one in both Canada and Costa Rica, the ECDC said.
In Europe there were 12 new confirmed cases compared to Thursday, raising the number of confirmed cases to 234.
Spain's 100 reported cases were the same as on Thursday while Britain reported seven new cases raising its tally to 78. France (14), Germany (12) and Italy (9) did not report any new cases in the past 24-hour period.
The Netherlands and Belgium each reported new cases of A(H1N1).
In total, 16 countries in Europe have reported cases of the flu virus.
The ECDC with headquarters in Sweden began to operate in 2005, and groups the EU as well as several non-EU members.
