Five more suspected swine flu cases

Five more people are suspected of having swine flu in New Zealand but the number of confirmed and probable cases today remained unchanged.

Seven people have been confirmed to have Influenza A (H1N1) swine flu and there are 12 probable cases, unchanged since Saturday.

Sixty-eight people were suspected of having the illness, up five from yesterday, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health.

No new figures were available for the number of people being treated with Tamiflu in isolation, which was 158 on Saturday.

Numbers of suspected cases fluctuated as cases were found and ruled out, ministry deputy director of public health Dr Fran McGrath said.

Worldwide 29 countries had reported 4379 cases of swine flu, up 939 since yesterday.

There had been 45 deaths in Mexico, two in the United States, one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.

- NZPA