Texas health authorities on Thursday reported four more deaths and 1,009 new confirmed and probable cases of A/H1N1 flu for the past week, bringing the death toll to 17 and the number of total cases to 3,991 in the southwest U.S. State.

The state health and human services department also said that, among the 17 deaths, 11 reported and confirmed in June, comparing to 5 in May and one in April.

A Mexican kid died in a Houston hospital in late April as the first death of the A/H1N1 flu virus in the United States.

Bordering with Mexico, Texas and California were the two U.S. states which reported first seven confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu virus -- two in Texas and five in California -- on April 23.

Since then, the new type flu has been circulating in both states, where reports of more deaths and widespread cases have been a common phenomenon in every week and every month.

In Texas, the state Health and Human Services Department reported 28 confirmed cases on May 1, compared with 1,403 cases on June 1 and 3,991 cases on July 2, a remarkable jump for each month.

As of Thursday, confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 flu virus reported in 112 of the state's 254 counties, with seven counties reporting their first confirmed cases for past week.

Hidalgo County, near the border with Mexico, has been the hardest-hit with three deaths as well as 1,032 confirmed cases.

Though the pandemic was first discovered in Texas and California in April, some experts believe that the new flu is the predominant flu type circulating currently in other states as well.

Nationwide, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday reported 170 deaths in 23 states and 33,902 confirmed and probable 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.

Even so, the CDC experts believe those cases — which sought treatment and underwent testing — are just the tip of the iceberg. They estimate more than one million Americans have been infected

with the virus so far, though many probably had only a mild illness.

About four out of five of the A/H1N1 flu deaths to date were adults aged 25 or older, although seven of the most recent deaths were children, according to CDC statistics.

Source: Xinhua