REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DAMASCUS -- Eleven people have been killed by the swine flu virus in Syria since September, the country's health ministry said on Tuesday.

"Since September, 27 people infected with the H1N1 virus have been hospitalised. Eleven of them died," Ahmad Damiriyeh of the health ministry's division on chronic and contagious diseases was quoted in the state-run Al-Thawra daily as saying.

The H1N1 cases were spread across Syria, according to the newspaper.

Syria reported its first death from swine flu in August 2009, during a regional outbreak that sparked warnings from governments and the World Health Organisation.

By August 2010, when the WHO lifted its warning, the virus had killed 18,500 people in 214 countries.

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