Brazil has confirmed 557 deaths caused by H1N1 flu, the highest total in the world, the nation's Health Ministry says. The United States has counted 522 fatalities through Thursday, and nearly 1,800 people had died worldwide through August 13, U.S. and global health officials said. In terms of mortality rate, which considers flu deaths in terms of a nation's population, Brazil ranks seventh, and the United States is 13th, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said in a news release Wednesday. ...

British airlines have put into effect measures to stop people with swine flu boarding flights in a bid to prevent the virus from spreading further. British Airways said there had been a "very small number of cases" where people who had checked in with symptoms of H1N1 had been advised not to travel after having medical checks. Virgin Atlantic also said victims would not be allowed to board one of its planes without a fit-to-fly certificate from their ...

The number of Internet scammers offering fake anti-swine flu drug Tamiflu has surpassed those selling counterfeit Viagra, a UK body said Friday. Since the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, was declared a global pandemic last month, there has been an increase in the number of Web sites and junk emails offering Tamiflu for sale. More than 70,000 people have now been infected with the virus, according to the World Health Organization. The increase in the number of ...

A nine-year-old girl has died in Britain from the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, as authorities reported a jump in the number of cases in the country. The girl is the third person in the UK to die from swine flu, doctors at a children's hospital in Birmingham, England said Monday. A spokeswoman for the hospital said in a statement: "We can sadly confirm that a child died at Birmingham Children's Hospital on Friday evening. "The ...

A sharp increase in the number of reported cases of the H1N1 virus in Australia may prompt the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the first global pandemic in over forty years. The number of Australian cases of the virus, commonly known as swine flu, has reached more than 1,200, with state and federal medical officers set to hold an emergency meeting in Sydney to review the country's swine flu protection measures. "We will take each decision along the way ...

The World Health Organization announced Tuesday it is still considering increasing its pandemic alert level to phase 6 because of growing worldwide cases of the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. "Globally, we are at phase 5, but we are nearing phase 6," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Assistant Director General. "As this continues to spread internationally, some countries are moving from isolated to sustained community spread." Phase 6 is a declaration that many member countries have long feared ...

Researchers at a South Korean university say they have discovered a candidate strain for an H1N1 vaccine, though it has not yet been approved by health authorities in the United States or the World Health Organization. The strain is a genetically modified version of a live virus, and could lead to a vaccine against H1N1 -- commonly known as swine flu, said Seo Sang-heui, a professor at Chungnam National University's College of Veterinary Medicine in South Korea. "We created a ...

The World Health Organization on Saturday reported 3,440 confirmed cases of swine flu in 29 countries, with 48 deaths from the sickness. The virus, also called H1N1, has spread as Australia reported its first confirmed case. On Friday there were 2,500 confirmed cases in 25 countries. In the United States, the total number of confirmed cases was 1,639 -- the same as Friday. Of the 48 deaths reported, two were in the United States, one was in Canada and 45 ...

The World Health Organization on Friday reported 2,500 confirmed cases of swine flu in 25 countries, with 44 deaths from the disease. In the United States, the total number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, as swine flu is officially called, nearly doubled to 1,639 from the day before, with reports coming from 43 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Dr. Sylvie Briand, acting director of the Global Influenza Programme at WHO, told reporters in a ...

Residents in Mexico City restlessly waited for life to return to normal as officials from both Mexico and the United States said the worst may be over in the swine flu outbreak. For now. By Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus stood at 1,085 in 21 countries, according to the World Health Organization. The count includes 25 deaths in Mexico and one in the United States. Mexican officials, citing improvement in the battle against ...