June 15 (Bloomberg) -- A victim of swine flu died yesterday in Scotland, the first confirmed death from the virus outside the Americas, according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO last week declared the first influenza pandemic since 1968, indicating that the H1N1 virus is spreading in communities outside the Americas. A total of 145 people in the Americas have died from the disease, including 108 in Mexico, the organization said in a statement on its Web site June 12.

“One of the effects of this tragic death should be to concentrate minds,” Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said in an interview today. “There has almost been an assumption that this virus will be mild for everyone.”

The person who died in Scotland was among 10 people hospitalized with the virus, the Scottish Government said in an e-mailed statement from Edinburgh. The victim had “underlying health conditions,” it said.

In a statement today, Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish health secretary, said the government was unable to provide details about the patient “on the express wishes of the family.” The British Broadcasting Corp. reported the victim was a 38-year-old woman who had recently given birth to a premature baby.

The government yesterday reported 35 new cases of swine flu, bringing the total in the country to 498. On June 13, the number jumped by 55, it said.

Glasgow Health

The virus is being detected in Scotland at one of the fastest rates in the world. Many of the cases are in Glasgow, the country’s biggest city, and neighboring areas in the west of Scotland, a region with one of Europe’s worst health records.

At an average of about 71 for a male, Glasgow has the lowest life expectancy of any region in Scotland and almost five years less than the capital, Edinburgh, according to data from the General Register Office for Scotland. That’s because of incidences of heart disease and liver cirrhosis as well as other killer illnesses, the Glasgow Centre for Population Health said.

Scots, who make up less than a 10th of the U.K.’s 60 million population, account for more than a third of national swine flu cases, based on statistics from the Scottish Government and the Department of Health in London.

Scotland also said yesterday there are a further 175 possible cases of H1N1 influenza under investigation.

“If we don’t interrupt the transmission of the virus and effectively give us the time to get to the vaccination period over the winter then there are always going to be more cases of people who are susceptible to this virus,” Salmond said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rodney Jefferson in Edinburgh at r.jefferson@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 15, 2009 10:00 EDT