Another NZer dies from swine flu

Information on the H1N1 advisory poster.

A 17th person has died from swine flu in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health says.

The man, in his 30s, died in Auckland yesterday. He had an underlying medical condition.

In New Zealand to date, the 3130 cases of H1N1 09 had been confirmed, though the real number would be considerably higher - only a small number of those infected were tested, deputy director of Public Health Dr Fran McGrath said.

" For most people, it's a mild illness and they will recover readily at home without needing medical treatment," she said.

Overseas, the World Health Organisation was advising northern hemisphere countries to prepare for a second wave of the highly infectious flu, and the H1N1 virus was now the dominant influenza strain in most of the world.

- NZPA