<div><p>An estimated 10,000 people including 1,100 children died of swine flu in the United States in the seven months after the new strain of flu was first detected in April, a top US health official said Thursday.</p><p>"By November 14th, many times more children and younger adults unfortunately have been hospitalized or killed by H1N1 influenza than happens in a usual flu season," Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters.</p><p>"Specifically, we estimate there have been nearly 50 million cases, mostly in younger adults and children; more than 200,000 hospitalizations... and sadly, nearly 10,000 deaths including 1,100 among children and 7,500 among younger adults," he said.</p><p>The number of hospitalizations was around the same as for an entire year when only seasonal flu is circulating, and the estimated death toll, which is based on a new methodology for calculating fatalities from (A)H1N1 flu that was rolled out last month, was "much higher than in a usual flu season," said Frieden.</p><p>The new way of tallying the number of dead from swine flu last month caused the estimated death toll from swine flu to soar to 4,000.</p><p>The toll released just before that count was based on figures provided by 10 states and put the number of swine flu fatalities in the United State at 672 -- and health officials suspected it was a "significant undercount."</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=65184573&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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