Washington, Nov 13 (DPA) Pediatric deaths from swine flu in the US are much more extensive than previously thought after health officials expanded their counting method, the nation’s disease control agency said Thursday.
An estimated 540 children under age 18 have died since the H1N1 flu virus emerged in mid April, more than four times the 129 pediatric deaths reported as of last week by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.

They were among the 3,900 people believed to have died from swine flu from mid April to Oct 17, the CDC said.

Anne Schuchat, a top CDC official who has been in charge of H1N1 prevention and control, said that the agency had expanded its count to include children who have died of secondary infections or who did not have laboratory confirmation that they had swine flu.

“It’s not a switch or a change from how we’ve been counting cases, it just gives us a bigger picture,” she told reporters. “We don’t think things have changed from last week to this week. We believe the 540 number is a better picture of what is out there.”

A total of 22 million people in the US have become ill from the swine flu pandemic, including 98,000 who have been hospitalised and the 3,900 people who have died.