ASUNCION, Paraguay - Paraguay on Wednesday reported its first human fatality due to swine flu, the health ministry said as the number of cases mounted in the southern hemisphere.

The victim was a man in his sixties, the ministry said, adding that he was the first to have died out of 100 people diagnosed with the A(H1N1) virus in the South American country.

Swine flu, first discovered in Mexico in April, has grown into a pandemic, contaminating 120 countries around the world with 77,201 cases including 332 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.