Venezuela has registered a total of 970 A/H1N1 influenza infections, including 41 deaths, Venezuelan Health Minister Carlos Rotondaro said on Wednesday.

Rotondaro said that the deaths were caused by associating chronic diseases like respiratory disease, heart diseases, obesity and cancer.

The Venezuelan government would spend US$25 million buying 5 million doses of vaccines against the flu, Rotondaro said. The country would also build its first A/H1N1 flu vaccines factory in 2010.

Venezuela reported its first death of a 11-month-old girl killed by the A/H1N1 flu on July 19.

According to the last report published on Aug. 28 by the World Health Organization, there were a total of 209,438 infections, including 2,185 deaths in the world,

The American countries continue to have the most cases, with 52.6 percent of the total.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2009)