Swine flu toll rises to 60 in the nation
POSTED August 24, 2009 - 12:01 | POSTED BY Neharika Sabharwal
Last edited by Priya Markanda on August 24, 2009 - 13:16
Six more deaths related to swine flu were reported on Sunday, out of which five, fell prey to the viral in Maharashtra and one in Gujarat. With these fatalities, Maharashtra was the highest on the country’s H1N1 radar.
The Health Ministry stated, "The cumulative laboratory confirmed deaths reported by the states as on August 23, 2009, are 60 - Maharashtra (36), Karnataka (12), Gujarat (6), Tamil Nadu (3), Delhi (2) and Kerala (1).”
Details of some victims
Health officer BL Survase, stated that though details of all the people who died in Maharashtra were not available, 26–year-old Anil Sheshrao Chavan from Jalna of the Marathwada district in Maharashtra, passed away on Saturday at the Mission Hospital due to H1N1.
In Gujarat the sixth victim was a 48-year-old man who succumbed to the disease at the SSG hospital in Vadodara on Sunday.
Superintendent-in-charge of the SSG hospital Dipesh Duttaroy, disclosed that Hasmukh Hingu, a resident of Bharuch town in southern Gujarat, was hospitalized on August 20 with a 'respiratory distress syndrome'. Being critical he had been put on the ventilator but failed to recover and died on Sunday morning.
In Delhi a 48-year-old man was admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, on August 20 with fever, shortness of breath and renal failure. He died on Saturday night of acute respiratory distress and pneumonia.
Hospital Medical Superintendent, NK Chaturvedi stated that his swab test report was awaited to confirm whether he was a victim of H1N1. The man had opted for treatment at a private chamber and in the process lost precious time which deteriorated his health.
A 40-year-old woman died of suspected H1N1 flu in a private hospital in Panchkula. She hailed from Kurukshetra district in Haryana. A senior official from the health department disclosed that her swab too has been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases for testing and the result was awaited.
Fresh cases surfaced
Meanwhile, the number of positive cases in the country has crossed the 2,669 mark, with 131 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.
In the fresh cases, 44 are in Delhi, 21 in Karnataka (Bangalore - 19, Gadag - 1, Belgaum - 1), 20 in Tamil Nadu (Chennai - 17, Coimbatore - 3), 23 in Maharashtra (Pune - 16, Nagpur - 3, Dhule - 2, Ahmednagar - 1, Beed - 1); 5 in West Bengal (Kolkata - 4, Nabadwip - 1); 9 in Kerala (Kochi - 2, Trivandrum - 2, Mallapuram - 1, Kasargod - 1, Alappuzha - 1, Pattanamthitta - 1, Kottayam - 1); 1 in Chhattisgarh; 3 in Goa; 2 in Haryana (Faridabad - 1, Gurgaon - 1); 2 in Rajasthan (Jaipur - 1, Ajmer 1) and 1 in Madhya Pradesh (Indore).
According to sources of the Health Ministry, in the new cases reported, six in Delhi and two in Kerala are associated with recent travel to the affected countries.
