A 16-year-old Pierce County girl has died of what doctors believe may be swine flu, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department said Thursday.

The girl lived in the Buckley area and died in a Pierce County hospital, according to Dick Ferguson, a Health Department public relations consultant.

Hospitals are required to notify local health departments of flu-related deaths during the H1N1 pandemic. The Health Department was notified of the girl’s death at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, Ferguson said.

He wouldn’t name the hospital or whether the girl had an underlying condition that made her more vulnerable.

Throat swabs from the patient have been sent to the state laboratory, Ferguson said, where tests will determine for certain whether H1N1 was involved.

Washington heath officials estimate that at least 95 percent of the flu currently circulating in the state is H1N1. If the girl’s test is positive, that would raise the number of swine flu deaths in Pierce County to nine.

The most recent confirmed death, an East Pierce County woman in her 50s, occurred Oct. 30. The woman lived in Pierce County but died in a different county, according to TPCHD spokeswoman Joby Winans.

Of the eight confirmed deaths in Pierce County, six were women, ranging in age from early 20s to mid-50s. One of the men who died was in his 40s, the other in his 70s, according to the Health Department.

“All had some underlying condition that made them more susceptible to the virus and more vulnerable to complications and death,” Winans said.

As of Tuesday, 116 people had been hospitalized with H1N1 in Pierce County, according to the Health Department.

Only two schools in Pierce County reported absenteeism greater than 10 percent Wednesday, down from a high of 37 schools on October 26. That should not be taken as a sign the flu has peaked, Winans said.

“The typical pattern with flu is a series of peaks and valleys,” Winans said. “That could continue for three months or more.”