A Bologna couple who returned from a honeymoon in New York at the weekend were confirmed Thursday as Italy's latest sufferers from the A/H1N1 flu virus.
The newlyweds brought the total of 'new flu' sufferers to 37.
The couple, who are being treated at home, were reported to be in ''stationary'' condition.
Five new cases of the new H1N1 flu, also known as Influenza A, were confirmed on Wednesday.
Two of the cases were teenaged girls from Viterbo, near Rome, who returned to Italy from Pittsburg on a New York-Rome flight towards the end of May.
The teenagers were initially treated at a hospital and are now at home, where they are said to be in good condition.
The ministry said the second teenager had caught the infection as a result of contact with the first case, who had also infected a third teenager, a 17-year-old in Viterbo.
The fourth case is a 32-year-old man who returned to Rome from Montreal at the end of May, while the fifth case is a 43-year-old man who had visited New York.
Both men's conditions are said to be good. People who have been in close contact with the five have already been traced and are under surveillance, the ministry said.
The latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the flu has now spread to 66 countries with 19,273 cases worldwide, while the death toll has risen to 117.
All the fatalities have been in North and Central America with 97 in Mexico, where the flu outbreak began, 17 in the United States, two in Canada and one in Costa Rica.
However, Mexican authorities said there had been 103 deaths in the country, which would bring the global total to 123.
According to the WHO figures, in Europe there are 180 cases in Spain, 339 in Britain, 28 in Germany and 26 in France.
