First swine flu death reported in Bihar

Swine flu has claimed its first victim in Bihar with a woman succumbing to the disease in a hospital here on Friday, officials said.

A health official said that woman, a resident of Bihta near here, died at a private hospital Friday, a week after being admitted with high fever and later testing positive for swine flu.

The state has 130 people who have so far tested positive for swine flu, including the district magistrate of Aurangabad. Indian Administrative Service officer Navin Chandra Jha tested positive after returning from a visit to Pune, Mumbai and Varanasi.

Pradeep Das, director of the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, which is the state's nodal testing centre for swine flu, said that 300 people were tested out of which 130 cases tested positive.

Health Minister Ramdhani Singh asked people not to panic while assuring all measures were in place.

"There is no need to panic, the state government is alert and officials have been asked to monitor the situation," he said.