Swine flu death toll in India touches 1330
POSTED February 20, 2010 - 15:48 | POSTED BY Neharika Sabharwal
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on February 20, 2010 - 16:19
With two more people falling prey to the lethal flu Friday, the mortality figure in the country has shot up to 1330 in the short space of six months.
According to official sources, the two fatalities were reported from Maharashtra. While one died yesterday, the second had occurred earlier but was confirmed as H1N1 related casualty to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today by the state.
State-wise death count
It is significant that Maharashtra, the epicenter of the swine flu outbreak in India, remains the state with the highest number of fatalities accounting for 350 lives lost.
Gujarat, where 276 persons succumbed to the virus, follows close. In other states 186 died in Rajasthan, 146 in Karnataka, 95 in Delhi, 52 in Andhra Pradesh, 39 in Punjab, 37 each in Kerala and Haryana.
Meanwhile, 25 lives were lost in Madhya Pradesh, 19 in Uttar Pradesh, 13 in Uttarakhand, 10 in Chhattisgarh, 8 each in Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh, 7 in Tamil Nadu, 6 in Puducherry, 5 in Goa, 4 in Jammu & Kashmir, 3 in Orissa, 2 in Assam and 1 each in Mizoram and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
Emergence of fresh infections across the country
Most of the transmissions in the nation are now between people who have been infected within the country itself.
According to official sources, the circulating virus infected 19 people in different parts of the country. The fresh cases included 12 from Maharashtra, 2 each from Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and 1 from Madhya Pradesh.
To date, the total number of positive cases of H1N1 confirmed by both government and private laboratories across the country has risen to 29,452.
Global update of H1N1
The World Health Organization (WHO) monitoring the progress of the pandemic closely reported the death toll from the influenza slowly inching towards the 16,000 mark.
"As of 14 February 2010, worldwide more than 212 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 15,921 deaths," the WHO said in its latest update.
However, a downward trend was quite evident since no new country has reported any infections or fatalities since last week.
As per the latest bulletin from the regional offices of WHO, America has the highest number of casualties with 7433 persons losing their battle against swine flu, while Europe accounts for 4056 deaths.
In South-East Asia 1562 succumbed to the virus and in the Western Pacific 1685 died. The East Mediterranean region accounted for 1018, whereas 167 passed away in Africa.
