# 3990
The numbers being reported in the story below (414 deaths) count only laboratory confirmed cases, and undoubtedly badly underestimate the true impact of the H1N1 virus.
Many countries are simply no longer testing for the virus, or are doing very little surveillance and reporting.
The trend though, is what is important. And the number of reported deaths in Europe is escalating rapidly.
This from Bloomberg News. Hat tip Florida1 on FluTrackers.
Swine Flu Deaths in Europe Doubling Weekly, Health Agency Says
By Andrea Gerlin
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu deaths in Europe doubled in three of the last four weeks, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said.
Eighty-four people in 31 European Union and European Free Trade Association countries died from swine flu last week, compared with 43 the week before, Stockholm-based ECDC said in a bulletin on its Web site. Two weeks ago, 49 people died, up from 24 and 12 the previous weeks, the agency said.
“We are globally entering the acceleration phase” of the pandemic, Denis Coulombier, head of the ECDC’s unit of preparedness and response, said in a telephone interview late yesterday. “We are heading toward the peak for sure.”
The region’s swine flu outbreak has been most severe in northern countries such as Ireland, Iceland and the Ural region of Russia, according to the World Health Organization’s regional office in Copenhagen. Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands are also experiencing significant levels of the illness, the WHO said in its Nov. 6 weekly report.
A total of 414 people in Europe have died from swine flu since the outbreak began in Mexico and the U.S. in April, ECDC said. The figure includes 155 deaths in the U.K., 73 in Spain, 31 in Italy and 30 in France since the beginning of the pandemic.
Almost 80 percent of all swine flu cases in Europe have occurred in people under 30 years of age, according to a risk assessment published by ECDC on Nov. 6.
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