Swine flu toll reaches 25
Swine flu toll across the country rose to 25 on Saturday with a man succumbing presumably to the deadly virus at Vadodara in Gujarat and another person dying in Karnataka even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised all possible steps to control the spread of the disease.
A 52-year-old man, who had come from Pune on Saturday morning, died at SSG hospital in Vadodara, taking the number of deaths in Gujarat to three, health department officials said.
According to Gujarat Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas, “the patient Jayesh Shah was admitted to hospital after he came from Pune on Saturday morning. He was in a critical condition and so was put on ventilator”. “He died due to renal and multiple organ failure. It is presumed to be a case of A(H1N1),” Principal Secretary (Health) Ravi Saxena said.
A senior official in Pune scaled down the total number of swine flu deaths claiming three patients had died because of viral pneumonia and not A(H1N1) and the toll due to the virus in the city stood at 12.
A total of 165 swine flu positive cases were reported across the country – the highest on a day – and 97 of them from Maharashtra. With this, the total number of positive cases has gone up to 1555, according to an official statement in Delhi.
However, the prime minister said the situation does not warrant any panic and the government will continue to make all necessary efforts to control the spread of the infection.
