Geneva  - The World Health Organization said Sunday there have been 4,379 cases of the new influenza A(H1N1) in 29 countries, with 49 fatal incidents, the latest coming from Coast Rica.

The number was a large jump from the previous day's tally, which had 3,440 cases reported.

Most of the new laboratory confirmed cases came from North America, statistics posted to the WHO website indicated.

Mexico had 1,626 confirmed cases of human infection, including 45 deaths. The United States reported 2,254 infections, including two deaths. Canada had 280 instances, including one death.

Costa Rica, in addition to the one fatality, has reported seven other cases.

The update came amid criticism from a former United Nations human rights expert, Jean Ziegler, on how the health agency has handled certain aspects of the outbreak.

"One has to bear in mind, that 100,000 people die every day because of hunger and related diseases," said Ziegler, who served as the UN's special rapporteur on the right to food from 2000 until 2008. He is now an adviser to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.

"Every second a child under 10 starves but we take this with frosty normality," he told the German Press Agency dpa.

"Around 953 million people are permanently severely malnourished. For them there is neither press nor an international mobilization," added Ziegler.

He said this was a sign the world's conscience was only alarmed when the "haves" felt threatened.

The agency currently has its pandemic influenza alert system, which tracks the geographic spread of the virus, at phase 5, the second highest. This indicates human-to-human transmission of H1N1 in two countries in one region of the world.

"The term pandemic does not indicate severity," Ashok Moloo, a WHO spokesman, told dpa by telephone, echoing similar statements by other UN officials.

He said the WHO was receiving "opinions from many quarters" on the alert system. He admitted there has been "some confusion" on certain issues.

While the new H1N1 had so far shown itself to be relatively mild, Moloo said nations needed to remain alert in case that changed.

"When we were faced with an unknown virus, we triggered our alarm system," Moloo explained. Talking about the actual impact of the disease is more difficult.

"To go into severity we need to be able to assess first what the disease represents to us," he added, noting that the WHO and scientists were still trying to pin down the nature of the virus.

In Europe, Spain had the most cases, with 93 and Britain had 39. Israel remained the only Middle East country affected, reporting seven cases. In the Pacific, South Korea had three cases and New Zealand seven. Besides Mexico, Brazil reported the highest number of infections in Latin America, with six cases. (dpa)