Texas health authorities on Monday reported one more death of A/H1N1 flu virus, bringing the death toll to 14 in the southwest U.S. State, Xinhua reported.
The latest death involved a 49-year-old man from Pflugerville in Travis County, health authorities said late Monday.
The man named Ron Stowe, a father of four, died Saturday at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, without underlying health conditions, according to his family.
Dr. Philip Huang, medical director for Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, said in a written statement that "given the fact that several deaths in Texas and hundreds globally have occurred due to this illness - this is not an unexpected event. We continue to coordinate with local, state and national partners to monitor the spread of this illness."
In Texas, the state health department last Wednesday reported 13 deaths and 2,982 confirmed and probable cases of the A/H1N1 flu in 95 of the state's 254 counties.
Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday reported combined 27,717 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu in all the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and U.S. territory Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, with 127 deaths in 22 states.
However, those are "really just the tip of the iceberg," Dr. Anne Schuchat, a leading CDC expert, said last week.
The CDC thinks more than one million Americans are infected with the H1N1 virus, she said, adding most are younger than 25.
The median age of hospitalized patients is 19, while the median age for people who have died from swine flu is 37 ---"still quite young for anyone to be dying of an infectious disease," Schuchat told reporters last week.