Posted: 01 June 2009 0859 hrs
People wear protective masks as a precaution against H1N1 flu in Santiago SANTIAGO - Chilean health authorities confirmed 26 new cases of Influenza A (H1N1) on Sunday, raising the number of patients in the country to 276, the highest number on the continent.
The sometimes-deadly disease continued its rise across Latin America meanwhile with Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and the Dominican Republic all reporting new cases.
Officials here said that most of the victims were in the capital, and that most cases were mild and being treated at home. Three people remain in serious condition in hospital, however.
A(H1N1) flu has killed nearly a hundred and infected over 15,500 worldwide, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures, since it emerged in North America in late April.
According to figures released by individual governments, the virus has actually now killed more than 110 people around the world.
In the southern hemisphere, health experts fear the new virus could take hold, as winter sets in and the regular flu season gets underway.
Argentine health authorities meanwhile reported 15 new cases on Sunday, a day after reporting 20 new cases, raising the country's total patient count to 115.
Officials in Buenos Aires said those with new A(H1N1) flu infections were recovering well and that most of them were found at several private schools in the capital, where students had recently returned from the United States.
The outbreak has prompted officials to close the schools for two weeks in a bid to contain the virus.
In the Dominican Republic, officials confirmed nine cases of the disease, raising the country's total to 11, a day after Santo Domingo rebuffed a Russian claim that the Caribbean island was under-reporting its cases in a bid to boost tourism.
"We fear that in reality, the situation is very different," Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief sanitary inspector, had told the Interfax news agency in response to the island reporting only two cases.
On Sunday the island's Ministry of Public Health reported that of the nine new cases one had been hospitalized.
In Peru health authorities said they had confirmed two more cases of the virus, bringing the country's total to 40.
Both cases were found in Lima and are recovering well on medication at home, officials said.
Brazil also confirmed four new cases, which brought the country's total number to 20.
At its last count at the end of last week Mexican authorities said 97 people had died from the disease and that 4,932 had been infected. Officials however maintained that the epidemic was on the wane there. - AFP/ir
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
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