U.S. swine flu cases pass 1 million

NEW YORK, June 27 (UPI) -- The H1N1 virus has infected more than 1 million people in the United States, hospitalized an estimated 3,000 and killed 127, a top health official said.

The total number of those infected is "just a ballpark figure," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of respiratory diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We know we're not tracking every single one of them."

Thousands more are infected each week, even as the traditional flu season winds down, Schuchat told The New York Times in a story published Saturday.

Recent outbreaks of the H1N1 flu has been reported in many areas of the country, including 34 summer camps in 16 states, the Times reported.

Of those hospitalized, the average age is 19, with the median age for death 37, Schuchat said. Nearly 75 percent of the 127 patients who died had an underlying condition such as morbid obesity, pregnancy, asthma, diabetes or immune problems.

Those victims tended "to be relatively young, and I don't think that they were thinking of themselves as ready to die," Schuchat told the Times.