Geneva: Swine flu is spreading faster and claiming new fatalities in Europe, health officials said today, as the global death toll from the virus rose to nearly 5,000 victims.
Since the A(H1N1) virus was uncovered in April, there have been over 4,735 deaths reported to the World Health Organisation as of a week ago, the WHO said.
Most of the fatal cases -- 3,539 -- have been recorded in North and South America, the UN health agency said in its latest update on the flu pandemic.
But with the winter flu season approaching in the northern hemisphere, swine flu deaths were reported in several European countries this week, with Dutch health officials saying the situation has reached an epidemic level.
"The spread of the A(H1N1) virus in the Netherlands accelerated this week. It is now a small epidemic," said the Dutch institute for health and the environment in a statement.
"Around 10 people infected with the virus were admitted daily to hospitals this week," it said. A 14-year-old girl became the first otherwise healthy person to die from the virus, bringing to six the number of swine flu deaths so far in the Netherlands.
In Britain, the worst hit country in Europe, new swine flu cases nearly doubled in a week, from 27,000 to 53,000, and the number of deaths now total 128, according to updated figures released this week.
New deaths from the virus were also reported in Germany, its third fatality, and for the first time in the Czech Republic. The Czech health ministry confirmed today that a 31-year old woman who had the A(H1N1) virus, and also suffered from heart problems, was the country's first fatality linked to swine flu.
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