Swine flu death toll in Bengal 24

A middle-aged man from Hooghly district today succumbed to swine flu, taking the death toll across West Bengal to 24 since January, a senior official of the Health department said.
During the same period 14 persons tested positive with the H1N1 virus as the total number of infected people climbed to 406 this year, West Bengal Health Services Director Biswaranjan Satpathy told PTI.
"The man was suffering from serious multiple ailments besides swine flu for a couple of weeks. He was critical and was on ventilator at a state-run hospital where he passed away," Satpathy said.
Talking about the new cases, he said, seven including three under-five-year-old children were reported from the city, two persons from South 24-Parganas, Hooghly while one each from Howrah, North 24-Parganas and East Midnapore districts tested positive.

A statement from hospital authorities stated CPI(M) leader Gautam Deb to be "clinically stable" with his "fever profile improved" though his "chest congestion was persisting".