The World Health Organization says at least 625 people have been reported dead from swine flu in the last week. That's more than 20 percent of the 2,837 known deaths since the novel virus first emerged in Mexico and the United States earlier this year.
Most of the deaths are in the Western Hemisphere, though the disease is in full-blown global epidemic mode.
WHO said Friday that laboratory-confirmed cases of the disease have now reached 254,206.
Spokesman Gregory Hartl says the figure far understates the actual number of cases because countries are no longer required to report each infection as the caseload is so high.
The United Nations agency is monitoring the strain to detect any mutation which might signal that it has become more deadly. And say the number of deaths is growing proportionately to the increase in number of infected people.
"There is no sense that the virus has mutated or changed in any sense," Hartl told a news briefing. "We are continuing to see increased number of deaths because we are seeing many, many more cases."
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