Argentina's Ministry of Health says a three-month-old baby girl has died of the A-H1N1 flu. They say they don't know exactly how she was infected.

Juan Carlos Bossio, Director, Ministry of Health Epidemiology Dept., said, "She caught the virus and her parents brought her to the hospital. She was attended by a professional team. She developed respiratory problems that required confinement in a general ward and later, it got worse and she was treated in the intensive care unit and sadly her conditioned worsened and she died."

This is the first fatal case in the South American country. Argentine health officials say the baby was born prematurely.

She was a high risk patient with respiratory problems. The number of A/H1-N1 cases has been climbing in Chile and Argentina as winter approaches in the southern hemisphere.

The World Health Organization says 76 countries have reported nearly 36-thousand cases, with 163 deaths.

(CCTV June 17, 2009)