ROME, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of H1N1 flu virus in Italy rose to 18 on Tuesday with a new toll near Naples.

    Doctors said Fernando Lettieri, a 37-year-old jazz musician on dialysis following a kidney transplant, died of pneumonia compounded by a flu virus infection.

    Lettieri is the ninth person to die of flu related causes in the Campania region around Naples after two women, 45 and 72, died in Naples on Monday.

    Prosecutors said they were investigating the death of an apparently healthy 12-year-old girl from Naples suburb of Pompei. The girl died of the virus last weekend 48 hours after coming down with symptoms.

    On Monday, the flu claimed its youngest Italian victim so far, an 11-year-old girl being treated for the flu at a hospital in Austria.

    According to doctors, a 10-year-old boy in Rome who also died on Monday had a severe case of pneumonia but tested negative for the new flu.

    Following the cases of children who became victims, families across the country, particularly in Rome and Naples, flocked to emergency rooms despite the health ministry appeals for people with flu symptoms to stay home and call their doctors, according to ANSA news agency.

    Responding to parents' concerns, Junior Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio said on Tuesday that children "are not at any greater risk of the virus than adults even though they are more prone to getting sick."

    Italian hospitals would begin vaccinating children by December ahead of the pandemic's expected peak around New Year, he added.

    According to Fazio, Italy will distribute a total of six million doses of the vaccine by the end of this month, as hospitals began immunizing pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses.

    Fazio also said there were 30 people in Italy hospitalized with serious cases of the virus but insisted that the 18 victims in Italy so far "were less than half the European Union average."

    "Last year, seasonal influenza killed 8,000 people in Italy," he said, citing the World Health Organization's recent estimate of 700 deaths from the H1N1 virus worldwide.

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