About 203,000 people around the world died of flu and respiratory problems during the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic, according to a new study funded by the World Health Organization.

Deaths from heart failure and other secondary consequences of the flu pushed the overall toll to about 400,000, according to the study, published online on Tuesday by PLoS Medicine.

The estimated death toll closely matches that of a study published in June 2012 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That study, based on early data, estimated that 201,000 people died of flu and respiratory causes and another 83,000 died of related cardiac problems.

Both counts were many more than the 18,449 laboratory-confirmed cases that the W.H.O. stood by as its official count in 2009 because agency officials were reluctant to guess at fatality rates. Some politicians, particularly in Europe, used the low official W.H.O. death rate to argue that fear of the pandemic had been overblown. They accused vaccine companies of fanning the public’s fears to sell more of their product.