The number of A/H1N1 flu infections continues to rise in the world over the past 24 hours.

The Mexican Health Ministry said on Tuesday (local time) that the A/H1N1 flu death toll rose from 83 to 85 and the infected cases totaled 4,806 cases.

The ministry said that it was "important to make clear that the death toll and the infection cases are not new," but those figures correspond to samples of confirmed cases that were being studied.

The ministry also said that the number of deaths for H1N1 flu virus corresponds to the 1.8 percent of the infected cases and that 12 of the cases died after April 23.

Meanwhile, the Gulf nation of Bahrain reported Tuesday that a 20-year-old student tested positive with the H1N1 flu, the first case with a Arab citizen of a Gulf Arab country. Eighteen U.S. soldiers who passed through Kuwait, another Gulf nation, had been reported positive with the flu.

Chile's health authorities confirmed on Tuesday 21 more cases of A/H1N1 flu in the country, bringing the infection toll to 107.

One patient is in critical situation while most of the cases are not serious, the Chilean Health Ministry said.

The Ecuadorian Health Ministry reported Tuesday three new cases of H1N1 flu, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to 28.

The ministry said the patients are three minors who had contact with other infected patients in the same city.

The number of infections with the A/H1N1 virus in Colombia rose to 16 Tuesday, after health authorities confirmed three more cases.

The new cases were found in the northwestern Antioquia Department. According to the regional governor, Luis Alfredo Ramos, the patients were sick after returning from a trip to the United States.

A European health agency said Tuesday that 54 new A/H1N1 flu cases were reported in European countries within the last 24 hours.

Of the new cases, 47 were confirmed in Britain, 4 in Italy, 2 in Spain and one in Ireland, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in its daily situation report.

Forty-five of 47 new confirmed cases in Britain are due to in-country transmission. The majority of these (44) are related to a previously confirmed case and the ongoing investigation of a school outbreak in the West Midlands, the ECDC added

The total number of confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu virus in the EU (European Union) and EFTA (European Free Trade Association) countries rose to 414, with 138 cases in Spain and 184 in Britain, 23 in Italy and 19 in France, the ECDC said.

South Korea's health authorities said Wednesday they have confirmed two more cases of Influenza A/H1N1, raising the number of infection to 29.

According to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, one American English teacher and a South Korean back from the United States recently were newly confirmed to have been infected with the H1N1 virus.

In Japan, the number of H1N1 infections rose to 354 in nine prefectures as of early Wednesday.

The Kawasaki city government in Kanagawa Prefecture, west of Tokyo, said a woman in her 30s living in the city, who recently returned from the United States, was confirmed infected with the new H1N1 strain, according to Kyodo News.

In Hong Kong, a woman tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the city to ten, local health authorities said Tuesday evening.

The patient, a 56-year-old local resident, recently traveled to San Francisco in the United States with her husband and returned to Hong Kong on May 23.

China's Health Ministry confirmed Tuesday a new A/H1N1 influenza case in central Hunan Province, raising the total confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland to 12.

The patient is a 19-year-old male from Changsha, capital of Hunan. The provincial health department said he had been studying at an unidentified U.S. university and returned to China last Thursday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2009)