Twelve people have died from swine flu in India since the beginning of March and nearly 110 others have been infected with the virus, the country's health ministry said.

The ministry announced in a statement late on Thursday that the victims were from the western states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan as well as southern Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

"The government is taking all necessary steps to curb the spread of influenza A (H1N1) virus across the country," health ministry spokeswoman S. Sharan in New Delhi told AFP.

"The states where cases had been reported have been advised to step up surveillance to control the further spread of the virus," she said.

More than 500 people died from swine flu in India and more than 14,000 people tested positive in 2009.

Vietnam approves new fund to fight bird flu
Hanoi (AFP) March 23, 2012 - Vietnam has approved a new 23-million-dollar fund to tackle bird flu after new strains of the virulent disease emerged in the communist country this year, the health ministry said.

The fund, made up of 13 million dollars of aid and 10 million dollars in loans from donors, aims to improve co-ordination between officials in the health and agricultural sectors, according to the ministry's website.

"Bird flu broke out again this year with complex and unpredictable signs," it quoted Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long as saying.

"There is currently no vaccine or effective drugs to treat people who have picked up bird flu," he said.

The ministry will upgrade its preventive medicine systems and explore new treatment to prevent the spread of the disease to humans, he said, adding that it was the ministry's top priority.

Since 2003, bird flu outbreaks have killed or led to the forced culling of millions of fowl in Vietnam, which is among the countries most affected by the H5N1 virus in southeast Asia.

The World Health Organisation has officially confirmed 61 deaths from the disease in Vietnam.