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| Bangalore reports first death, toll rises to 20 |
| Press Trust Of India / Bangalore/Pune Aug 14, 2009, 00:28 IST |
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A 26-year-old teacher became the first swine flu fatality in Bangalore, while an infant and an elderly woman died in Pune today, taking the nationwide toll to 20, even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said panic should not be created and the government is doing its best.
The rise in flu cases in the country was discussed threadbare at the meeting of the Union Cabinet in Delhi, during which Singh asked Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to work towards restoring confidence of the people and ensuring that panic is not created.
Sources said Azad made a presentation on the flu situation before the Cabinet, following which the issue was discussed in great detail.
Expressing concern over the situation, Singh is understood to have said that this was a major problem before the country and the government sector is doing its best.
Azad told reporters after the meeting that “the central and the state governments are taking all possible measures. For the past one week, we have been reserving places in government and some private hospitals. We are also looking for some private laboratories, since they are now needed.”
The teacher, identified as Roopa, who worked in a private school, had tested positive for the virus and was undergoing treatment at Bangalore’s St. Philomena hospital also for respiratory disorders, health authorities said. She died on Wednesday.
A mother of two children aged six and four, Roopa was hospitalised on August 7 with pneumonia, and later tested positive for swine flu, the Bangalore authorities said. She was also suffering from high blood sugar, they added.
Following her death, the authorities have advised the school, Sudarshan Vidyalaya, where she was taking classes till last week, to declare a break and subject students and her colleagues to flu tests as a precautionary measure.
In Pune, Rutwik Kamle was admitted first to a private hospital and then shifted to government-run Sassoon Hospital last evening in a serious condition, official sources said. The child died early this morning. Bharti Goyal, who was suffering from the viral infection, died in Pune’s KEM Hospital, they said.
The sources said Archana Kolhe also died as a result of the viral disease in Sassoon Hospital.
Besides the Pune deaths, one person each has succumbed to the virus in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Nashik, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram and two in Mumbai.
Asking people not to panic, the Union Health Minister also said, “Only those people who have symptoms need to wear a mask. They have to wear the mask not to protect themselves but to protect others,” he said.
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