Swine flu toll mounts to 25

ne August 15, 2009, 0:38 IST

Swine flu claimed three more lives, two of them in Chhattisgarh, taking the total number to 25, even as the government decided to issue new guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of suspected patients to calm fear among the people.

A 70-year-old woman, Parubhai Shinde, died in Pune and 18-year-old youth Sitaram Varma and a 40-year-old CRPF constable succumbed in Raipur and Bilaspur on Thursday.

Shinde, who was admitted to a hospital in Pune four days before following high fever and other symptoms of swine flu, died late on Thursday, health officials said. With this, the toll in Pune, the ground zero of the disease, mounted to 15. Varma died in Raipur yesterday of suspected swine flu to the first fatality in Chhattisgarh and it was followed by the death of CRPF Y S Rao, who had recently been to Mumbai, in Bilaspur today.

Varma, hailing from Bhilai, was suffering from pneumonia and throat infection, hospital sources said. The nodal officer in-charge of swine flu cases in Chhattisgarh, T K Aggarwal, said Varma’s throat swab was sent to Delhi for the flu test as the boy had recently visited Pune. Besides the deaths in Pune, one person each has died due to the viral infection in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Nashik, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Bangalore, Raipur and Bilaspur and two in Mumbai.

Health Minister Azad held a meeting with top health experts.