A/H1N1 influenza death toll rises to 6,260, says WHO

GENEVA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least 6,260 people worldwide have been killed by the A/H1N1 influenza as infections continue to increase in most regions of the northern hemisphere, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a latest update on Friday.

Of all the deaths, 4,512 occurred in the Americas, 678 occurred in South-East Asia and 516 occurred in the West Pacific. The other three WHO regions, Europe, East Mediterranean and Africa reported 300, 151 and 103 deaths respectively.

The WHO, which declared the H1N1 flu as a pandemic in June, said now more than 206 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases, which totals over 503,536. But this count should be significantly lower than the actual number of cases that have occurred because many countries have stopped testing and reporting individual cases.

In North America, where the new flu virus was first identified in April, Canada reported sharp increases in rates of influenza-like-illness, detections of the H1N1 virus, and school outbreaks over the past three weeks, the UN agency said.

In the United States, influenza transmission remains geographically widespread and intense but largely unchanged since the previous reporting week. And disease activity may have peaked in the earlier affected southern and south eastern parts of the country.

In Mexico, influenza activity remains geographically widespread with a significant wave of cases reported since early September, most notably from central and southern Mexico.

In Europe and Central Asia, overall influenza transmission continues to intensify throughout the continent as pandemic activity spreads eastward.

In Western Asia, increasing activity has been observed in several countries, including Afghanistan and Israel.

In East Asia, very intense and increasing influenza activity continues to be reported in Mongolia with a severe impact on the healthcare system. And influenza activity continues to increase in Japan and China.

So far the H1N1 flu virus has remained fairly stable and showed no signs of mutation, the WHO said.