panic

Swine flu claimed its first victims in Orissa this year with two persons falling prey to the lethal disease in the capital city of Bhubaneswar on Monday.

The first casualty reported was a 56-year-old woman from the Sailashree Vihar locality in Bhubaneswar.

After hospitalization on July 29 to Apollo Hospital with severe shortness of breath, chest pain, and high fever, she was kept on a ventilator.

Her throat swab and blood samples were sent for testing to the Regional Medical Research Centre on July 30 which tested positive.

The influenza that had emerged suddenly in the spring and then, sort of, melted away during winter has hit Kolkata yet again, this time probably in a mutated form.

Two more tested positive for swine flu in Kolkata on Saturday, taking the total number of affected to 14, including minister Nandagopal Bhattacharya in the last fortnight.

The two new cases include a middle-aged man and a woman. The former, attached to the ID hospital, hails from Batanagar, while the latter resides in Salt Lake.

Detection of fresh cases with every passing day is a troubling reminder that the strain is ramping up very quickly, infecting, sickening and even killing at-risk people.

A middle-aged man fell prey to the lethal virus Friday, taking the death toll in Mumbai to 10 in just two months.

This was the first fatality in the city in July. In addition, Mumbai had witnessed two casualties in May, while seven lives were lost because of the virus last month.