Brazil's Health Ministry on Friday reported 17 new cases of A/H1N1 flu, raising the total number in the country to 131.

Fourteen of the new patients are from the states of Sao Paulo, two from Goias and one from Mato Grosso do Sul. Three of them were infected in the Brazilian territory, while the others caught the flu during international trips.

The total number of domestic infections of the flu reached 23, but the Health Ministry said that does not mean the new strain of A/H1N1 virus is spreading freely in the country, as all the 23 patients had direct contact with people who were infected abroad.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Friday that the pandemic has infected 44,287 people worldwide and killed 180 of them.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2009)