Mexico City - The number of deaths in Mexico known to have been caused by the outbreak of a hitherto-unknown strain of flu climbed Wednesday to 42, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said Wednesday.

The total number of infections had climbed to 1,112, he said, including the 42 known to have died from the A(H1N1) virus, according to the updated numbers.

The death toll had reached 29 on Tuesday, with a total of 840 infections.

Mexico is gradually returning to normal after public life was mostly shut down during more than a week of mounting concern over the possibility of a serious epidemic.

But the rate of infection has slowed down. There were no new deaths, officials said. The numbers released Wednesday reflect the completion of additional lab tests on tissues from the more than 159 deaths from influenza over the past month.

Mexico was the epicentre of the outbreak of the so-called swine flu that also heavily affected the United States, where at least two people have died and 642 people were infected.

Globally, the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) put the total of confirmed cases at 1,658 in 23 countries. WHO's numbers usually lag behind the sum of individual country reports.

The virus combines genes from human, swine and bird flu in a hitherto unknown way, making public health officials nervous because there is no immunity or vaccine yet against the illness.