WHO confirms 331 flu cases and 10 deaths

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation said on Friday that as of 7 a.m. British time the number of officially confirmed cases of a new flu sweeping around the world was 331 in 11 countries, including 10 deaths.

The figures for what the WHO calls influenza A (H1N1), widely known as swine flu, include 109 confirmed cases with one death in the United States and 156 confirmed cases with nine deaths in Mexico, it said in a statement on its website.

Other countries with laboratory-confirmed cases are Austria (1), Canada (34), Germany (3), Israel (2), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (3), Spain (13), Switzerland (1) and United Kingdom (8).

Other estimates of infection are higher. For instance Mexico says up to 176 people have died there and the authorities have confirmed 12 deaths.

(For more Reuters swine flu coverage, please click here:

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(For WHO information on swine flu, go to:

here )

(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn)