Another swine flu death in Hyderabad, 20 in Telangana so far

A man died due to swine flu here, taking the number of deaths in Telangana due to the virus to 20 this season (since mid- December), a senior official said today.
The death was reported yesterday, said L Narendranath, director of state-run Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences.
This month a total of 11 deaths were reported due to swine flu, he said.
As many as 15 samples turned out to be positive for the swine flu from the 64 samples tested yesterday. So far this month, 754 samples have been tested and 249 were confirmed to be positive.
As announced by the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, necessary medicines had reached the district and area hospitals and other measures were being put in place, Narendranath said.

People can obtain information about the disease on helpline number '104' attended by a team of doctors. The intensity of the virus was understood to have come down in the last few days, and the team of Central government officials which is here is also of the same view, he said.

The Central team was "completely satisfied" with the measures, though it had made certain suggestions. Among other things it suggested that health care workers can have a revision of the protection measures they need to take.
The testing facility at fever hospital would be operationalised. The samples are daily tested at the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM), he said.

As the temperatures in the state were rising, it could lead to fall in the spread of infection, he said.