India’s H1N1 death toll crosses 1000 mark

With this, the national death count due to the contagious virus has crossed the 1000 mark and stands at 1037.

Of these fatalities, eight were reported from Gujarat, seven from New Delhi, four from Rajasthan, two from Maharashtra and one from Madhya Pradesh.

State wise death count
Among the swine flu affected states, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state since its first causality was reported in August last year. As many as 284 people have lost their lives in the state.

After Maharastra, the states to have recorded the maximum number of swine flu deaths are: Rajasthan with 156 deaths, Gujarat 142 and Karnataka 133.

The total H1N1 fatalities in other states are 83 in New Delhi, 52 in Andhra Pradesh, 35 in Punjab, 34 in Kerala, 33 in Haryana, 16 in Uttar Pradesh, 13 in Uttarakhand, 12 in Madhya Pradesh, eight in Chandigarh, seven each in Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, six in Puducherry, five in Goa, three in Orissa, two each in Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh and one each in Assam and Mizoram.

Fresh cases of swine flu infection
Besides the casualties, 99 fresh cases of the contagion were also reported from different parts of the country on the same day.

This includes 20 cases each reported from Maharashtra and Gujarat, 15 in Delhi, 13 in Rajasthan, eight in Chandigarh, seven in Punjab, five each in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, two in Kerala, and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu.

With this, the total number of positive cases of the H1N1 influenza in the country so far has gone up to 27,522, the statement added.

“Till date, samples from 116,072 people have been tested for Influenza A (H1N1) in government laboratories and a few private laboratories across the country and 27,522 of them have been found positive,” said a health ministry statement.

Clinical trials for swine flu vaccine
As the pandemic swine flu continues to create havoc, pharmaceutical companies have started pitching to conduct clinical trials for the H1N1 vaccine in the nation.

Ahmedabad based Zydus Cadila, one of the five largest pharmaceutical companies in the country, is the first one to get an approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to carry out multi-centric clinical trials for the swine flu vaccine in India.

The health authorities of the country are anticipating that the first indigenous H1N1 vaccine will be available in the Indian markets by March this year.

It is also expected that the vaccine will be priced at half the rate of the currently available imported vaccines.