GENEVA, (Reuters) – H1N1 flu has killed at least 2,837 people but is not causing more severe illness than previously and the virus has not mutated, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday.
The United Nations agency is monitoring the strain, commonly known as swine flu, to detect any mutation which might signal that it has become more deadly.
“There is no sense that the virus has mutated or changed in any sense,” 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.
