28 Jun 2009

Number of swine flu cases up

10:16 am on 28 June 2009

The official tally of confirmed cases of swine flu rose by 54 on Saturday, to 507.

The Ministry of Health figures are an under-estimate as they only refer to those cases which have been confirmed by laboratory.

Wellington has had most confirmed cases, according to the tally, followed by Auckland and Canterbury.

In Australia a 26-year-old woman has become the fifth Australian to die after being diagnosed with swine flu.

The woman, who was being treated for an underlying medical condition, died late last night in intensive care at Royal Perth Hospital.

Four other Australians have died and two children are in intensive care because of the virus.

One of the children has no pre-existing medical conditions.

Australian experts say the swine flu vaccine will not be available in time to help many of the people who are going to contract the virus and they are certain more people will die from swine flu in Australia.

Australia has over 3000 cases of the virus.

The total number of confirmed cases of swine flu worldwide is now 59,814 including 263 deaths.