H1N1 FLU: CANCER PATIENTS BRING DEATH TOLL TO 85

H1N1 FLU: CANCER PATIENTS BRING DEATH TOLL TO 85

(ANSA) - Rome, November 26 - A pair of cancer patients who died on Thursday with the H1N1 flu virus on Thursday brought the death toll in Italy to 85.

Doctors said that both men, a 35-year-old from Turin and a 63-year-old from the island of Ischia, were in serious condition with their illnesses before coming down with the flu.

On Wednesday, Junior Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio said the pandemic's first peak had come early, spreading at a rate of 100,000 new cases per day by mid-November.

The health ministry has registered an estimated 2.3 million cases of the virus, but Fazio said there could be many more.

"The good news," according to the junior health minister is that the peak "may already be subsiding".

He cautioned however that "this doesn't mean the worst is behind us" and again stressed the importance of vaccinating 40% of the population to stop the pandemic before the virus mutates into a more virulent strain.

Fazio also warned that the pandemic could "ebb and flow" peaking more than once before it ends.