Canada's swine flu toll reaches 37 with Quebec death

Another Quebecer has died after getting swine flu, bringing the Canadian death toll to 37.

Fifteen Quebecers have now died after being infected with the H1N1 influenza virus. There have been 12 reported deaths in Ontario, five in Manitoba, three in Saskatchewan and two in Alberta.

Quebec health officials provided no immediate details Tuesday on the identity of the latest person to die. Three new deaths from swine flu were reported Monday, one person in each Prairie province. The three also had other health problems.

A World Health Organization official, Dr.  Keiji Fukuda, said Tuesday that 137 countries, territories and areas around the world now have reported more than 98,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection and more than 440 deaths.

Although death rates are still low, there is fear that the virus, which jumped from pigs to people, could mutate into something more dangerous.

Saskatchewan's third fatal case involved a child under 10. Manitoba's fifth was an adult between 18 and 65.

Dr. André Corriveau, Alberta's chief medical health officer, reported that province's second fatality was a middle-aged woman who died June 30 in an Edmonton hospital after being transferred from another jurisdiction he refused to identify.

"Influenza causes deaths every year, so this influenza is not different in that way," he said. "And so we can expect to have more deaths."