MORE flu-related deaths have been reported around the Latin American as well as the Caribbean region.

Argentine officials say seven more people have died of H1N1 flu and public hospitals will delay some surgeries to focus on respiratory illnesses during the South American winter.

The Health Ministry says Argentina's H1N1 flu death toll is now 17, more than any other nation in South America.

All the deaths have been in Buenos Aires or its outskirts.

City health chief Nestor Perez Balino tells Todo Noticias channel officials will postpone non-emergency operations to free up hospital beds.

But he says doctors are more concerned with bronchitis and the regular seasonal flu than the H1N1 strain.

The Health Ministry also confirmed 74 new nonfatal H1N1 flu cases on Tuesday, raising the total sickened to 1,294.

Meanwhile in the Dominican Republic, A 50-year-old woman died on Tuesday of H1N1 flu, becoming the second person to die of the A(H1N1) virus in the Caribbean nation, Health Minister Bautista Rojas said.

The flu, which first appeared in Mexico in April, has infected 108 people in the Dominican Republic.

Worldwide, the A(H1N1) virus has sickened 52,160 people in 100 countries and territories, causing 231 deaths, according to the latest figures of the World Health Organisation. -- AFP, AP