MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – The H1N1 flu virus is  making fewer people in Mexico sick and will likely cause no  more than 100 deaths in the country, Health Minister Jose Angel  Cordova said yesterday.

Cordova told Reuters that Mexican hospitals were seeing a  drop in cases of the virus, also known as swine flu, in recent  days.

“Fortunately this was not the very serious epidemic  that we were expecting,” he said in an interview.

Mexico has confirmed 60 deaths from the virus, which has  spread throughout the world, and additional fatalities could  come from people already in serious condition in hospitals.

“People are arriving earlier to treatment, fewer people are  coming in serious condition, there have been fewer cases coming  into the hospital and fewer deaths,” he said.

Close to 30 percent of those who died in Mexico were  suffering diabetes or complications from obesity, he said.

Quickly spreading from human to human, the H1N1 flu has now  sickened 6,000 people in more than 30 countries, but no place  has suffered as many deaths as Mexico.

Cordova blamed the high fatality rate on the fact that many  do not seek health care in Mexico, or try to self-medicate when  their symptoms are similar to those of a common seasonal flu.

Some people may be asymptomatic carriers of the virus, who  never show the signs of a serious fever or respiratory problems  related to the infection, said Cordova, making those cases  virtually impossible to detect.

“There may be healthy carriers of the virus … that we  will never discover, because if they have no symptoms they are  not going to go to the doctor,” Cordova said.

So far, more than 2,400 people in Mexico have fallen ill  with the H1N1 flu strain.