Swine flu death toll revised to nearly 300,000 people

PARIS: The influenza A subtype H1N1 ''swine flu'' 2009 pandemic probably claimed more than a quarter of a million lives - 15 times more than the 18,500 reported, according to a paper in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

The elevated toll underlined the need for better planning and vaccine distribution, said a team of epidemiologists and physicians who made a statistical model based on population and infection estimates to present what they believe is a more accurate picture of the pandemic's reach.

''This study is one of the first to provide a global estimate of deaths caused by the 2009 H1N1 virus,'' lead author Fatimah Dawood of the US government's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.

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