17 people have been killed by an outbreak of swineflu in Venezuela and another 250 people are infected.
H1N1, often referred to as swine flu, was a flu strain that swept around in the world in a 2009/2010 pandemic.
Most of the cases were in border states near Colombia.
Venezuela's government has not confirmed the figures given by media and local health authorities.
But officials said high-risk groups had largely been immunized, with 3m vaccinations carried out so far this year.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) official data show 18,500 people were reported killed in the 2009/2010 H1N1 pandemic.
A study in The Lancet last year said the actual death toll may have been up to 15 times higher at more than 280,000.
