The pandemic H1N1 flu virus continues to cause widespread infection in many parts of the world but is not becoming more serious, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The WHO said it had counted 2,837 deaths worldwide but noted that not every case was being counted any more.
The United Nations agency is closely monitoring the strain, commonly known as swine flu, but said it had not detected any mutation which might signal that it has become more deadly.
"It is not causing more severe illness than before, there have been no changes in the behavior of the virus," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing.
"We are continuing to see increased number of deaths because we are seeing many, many more cases."
About a quarter of a million cases have been laboratory-confirmed worldwide, but this is far fewer than the true number according to the WHO which has stopped requiring its 193 member states to report individual cases.
Its previous update of August 28 showed at least 2,185 deaths, meaning an additional 652 deaths were reported in the past week.
The virus could eventually infect 2 billion people, or a third of the world's population, according to WHO estimates.
source :reuters
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