United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says developing countries could need more than $1 billion by the end of this year to fight the swine influenza A (H1N1) pandemic.
Mr. Ban said Monday in Geneva that the money is needed to ensure the poorest countries get vaccine supplies. He said funding has not been flowing as the U.N. expected.
The secretary-general urged global solidarity to fight the worldwide swine flu crisis.
Also Monday, British health officials say a nine-year-old child from London has died after contracting swine flu.
Officials said the child had serious pre-exisiting health problems before contracting the virus.
As of Monday morning, the World Health Organization had not yet confirmed that death. According to WHO figures, three people in the Britain have died from the virus, and there are now more than 7,400 reported cases there.
The British government warned last week that Britain could soon face more than 100,000 daily cases of swine flu if the current rate of infection is maintained.
The WHO says more than 90,000 cases of swine flu have been reported worldwide, resulting in more than 400 deaths. It recently declared the first pandemic in more than 40 years because of the way the virus has spread around the globe.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
