India’s swine flu toll rises to 340
POSTED October 4, 2009 - 13:01 | POSTED BY Neharika Sabharwal
Last edited by Sham Kamboj on October 4, 2009 - 13:48
The country witnessed another rise in swine flu fatalities with five more people succumbing to the deadly virus across the nation Saturday, taking the death toll of the country to 340.
Three of the casualties were reported from Maharashtra, including two from Pune, raising the death toll due to the infection in the state to 135.
In addition two more suspected H1N1deaths were reported from state. However, the health officials are still awaiting laboratory confirmation for the same.
The remaining two fatalities were from Gujarat and Karnataka. Although the death in Karnataka occurred on September 30, the official confirmation of it being H1N1 related came on Saturday.
Maharashtra worst hit state by the virus
Maharashtra has been hit hardest by the pandemic. It has reported 2,968 positive cases so far, of which 2,716 are collectively shared by Mumbai region and Pune district.
According to director of the state health services there seems to be no let up in the infectious disease in Maharashtra, with the laboratory confirmation rate of the virus spurting to 22percent in September from15 percent in August.
Detection of fresh H1N1 cases in the country continues
The gradual rise in fresh cases of the influenza is continuing, with 197 new cases surfacing from across the country Saturday. With an exception of one case all the others are indigenous.
Maharashtra accounted for 61 new cases, the highest in the country. The capital was close on heels with 56 new cases detected, taking the total to 2,769 - the second highest.
Meanwhile, fresh cases of swine flu were also reported from Karnataka (24), Kerala (22), Andhra Pradesh (14), Haryana (10), Gujarat (7) and Uttar Pradesh (2).
The health ministry issued a statement declaring that samples of 45,065 people have been tested for the virus in both government and private laboratories across the country since the outbreak. Out of those tested 10,730 were confirmed cases of the disease.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), till September 20, more than 300,000 cases of H1N1 were confirmed worldwide with nearly 3,917 people having fallen prey to the ailment.
