First death of A/H1N1 flu

PANAMA. Panama has confirmed one death of A/H1N1 flu, the first in the country, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

The victim, a nine-month-old baby from the country's western Cocle Province, had a congenital malformation and had been hospitalized, Health Minister Franklin Vergara said.

The baby did not had flu-like symptoms when he was admitted to the hospital but was tested positive for the flu virus later, the minister added.

Panama reported 17 new flu cases this week, bringing the total confirmed cases to 541. But about 88 percent of the patients have recovered.

The country reported its first A/H1N1 flu infection on May 8.

The worldwide death toll from swine flu has doubled in the past month, reaching over 700 since the start of the outbreak last spring, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The U.N. health agency also said it is examining how countries can tackle the expected explosion in cases predicted this fall, when students and workers in the northern hemisphere return from summer vacation.

Closing schools can help break the chain of swine flu transmission, though at risk of considerable economic cost, the British medical journal The Lancet reported Tuesday. The study is to be published in next month's edition.

"School closures is one of the mitigation measures that could be considered by countries," WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi told reporters in Geneva.

The agency has stressed that although the disease is "unstoppable" in the long term, slowing its spread is important to prevent hospitals being overwhelmed.