Mexico's toll of confirmed infections for the deadly new A/H1N1 flu is now 7,624, up 531 from Tuesday's report, and the disease has now killed 113 people, unchanged from Tuesday, the nation's Health Ministry said in a Thursday statement.
The deaths represent 1.5 percent of those infected, the statement added, repeating its call for people to go to their doctor should they suffer any flu symptoms, which include headaches, muscular pain, high temperature or excess mucus.
"Influenza is a disease which if treated promptly is curable," the statement said. On April 23, Mexico became the first nation to report cases of the deadly new flu, which has now struck 37,204 people in 76 nations. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization officially raised the flu to a stage 6 pandemic rating, meaning that it is spreading from person to person in two or more continents.
The ministry said that 37.2 percent of those who died of the flu had been suffering obesity or diabetes before the disease struck, and that 17.7 percent had also had cardiovascular conditions. Mexico City hosts the single largest number of cases, and together with states Veracruz, Yucatan, San Luis Potosi and Jalisco, has the vast majority of the nations cases.
(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2009)
