World's H1N1 toll is about 5,000

GENEVA — About 5,000 people reportedly have died from swine flu since it emerged this year and developed into a global epidemic, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Since most countries have stopped counting individual swine flu cases, the figure is considered an underestimate.

WHO said there were 4,999 total deaths through Oct. 18, most of them in the Western Hemisphere. The figure was up 264 from a week earlier.

Iceland had its first H1N1 flu, or swine flu, death this week, and WHO said Sudan and Trinidad and Tobago also reported deaths from the virus for the first time this week.

In London, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC said children may only need one shot of its swine flu vaccine to be protected.

In its statement Friday, Glaxo said one dose was enough to boost children's immune systems to fight the virus, based on data from a trial in Spain in 200 children ages 6 months to 3 years.

Glaxo's finding comes after experts said they expected children would need two doses, since their immune systems are weaker than those of adults. Last week, rival vaccine maker Sanofi Aventis said children would likely need two doses of vaccine against swine flu, or H1N1.

GlaxoSmithKline's Pandemrix vaccine contains an adjuvant, a chemical compound that stretches a vaccine's active ingredient and increases the human body's immune response.

Most people recover from swine flu without needing medical treatment, but the virus strikes children particularly hard.