CAPE TOWN, Aug 3 (Reuters) - South Africa has confirmed its first H1N1 influenza death, a university student, a health official said on Monday.

"A 22-year-old University of Stellenbosch student became the first fatality in the Western Cape and as far as we know, in South Africa," Dr Craig Househam, head of the Western Cape Department of Health, told reporters.

"The death ... is the first confirmed death related to the H1N1 virus in South Africa."

The World Health Organisation declared an H1N1 influenza epidemic on June 11. The virus has killed more than 800 people worldwide since emerging in April. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf, editing by Tim Pearce)

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