The World Health Organization's flu chief said the swine flu virus has now become the predominant flu strain worldwide.

In some countries, swine flu accounts for up to 70 percent of the flu viruses being sampled, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO's top flu official.

While most people recover from the illness without needing medical treatment, officials are also continuing to see severe cases in people under 65 _ people who are not usually at risk during regular flu seasons.

"We remain quite concerned about the patterns that we're seeing," Fukuda said during a press briefing Thursday.

He said the swine flu virus appeared to be fairly stable, and that samples from around the world remained very similar to when the virus was first identified in April.

Regarding the recent surge of cases in the Ukraine _ which has reported more than 250,000 cases and 70 deaths of people with flu-like illness in recent weeks _ Fukuda said the virus appeared no different there than anywhere else.

"We just simply have to understand that influenza can cause outbreaks in very large numbers of people," he said. "Patterns can be quite different from country to country."

Fukuda said the agency was also monitoring the impact of the virus on particularly susceptible populations.

On Wednesday, Venezuelan officials reported that swine flu had hit the Yanomami Indians, killing seven people in a population of 28,000. Continued...