According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the global death toll for the H1N1 swine flu virus has reached more than 11,500.  The announcement came on Wednesday, nearly eight months after reports of the initial outbreaks began surfacing in April.

“As of 20 December 2009, worldwide more than 208 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 11,516 deaths,” read the WHO’s official statement.

In the weekly report, WHO officials also stated that there had been a recent spike in the number of deaths related to the virus—almost 1,000 since it issued its last update.  Experts are currently speaking of a peak or plateau in infection rates for North American and Western Europe, while the spread of the virus appears to be diminishing throughout much of the Asian continent.

Despite the territorial breadth of the virus’ spread, covering vast swathes of land across the United States and Canada, the actual rate of H1N1 infection as well as symptoms of flu-like illnesses have been falling substantially in recent weeks according to the statistics coming out of hospitals and clinics.

“In the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, transmission of pandemic influenza virus remains active and geographically widespread, however overall disease activity has recently peaked in much of the hemisphere,” said the report which can be found on the organization’s website.

In most of Western Europe as well, epidemiologists say that the virus is still actively spreading, though the actual rate of infection appears to have already peaked and leveled off.  The eastern portion of the continent is still experiencing a rise in infection rates, however, and the worst may be yet to come.

On Tuesday, the WHO issued a sort of pre-report which cautiously stated the H1N1 pandemic seemed to be relatively moderate, but stressed that it is still affecting an unusually large proportion of healthy young adults.