Three more die of swine flu, toll reaches 10

In Pune, the disease claimed the life of a 13-year-old; in Mumbai, a 63-year-old was killed; and in Vadodara, a seven-year-old girl succumbed to the fever.

Shruti Gavde, who had tested positive last Saturday, died in Pune's Sassoon Hospital, barely hours after a pharmacist Sanjay Tilekar died there Monday night, an official from Maharashtra's State Swine Flu Control Room said.

A student of A.D. High School in Pune, Shruti had been admitted to Sassoon Hospital Sunday in critical condition. She died around 1.30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the official.

In the Maharashtra capital Mumbai, Shahida Warsi died at a private hospital.
"The deceased was from Thane and had been brought to Mumbai for treatment," said Additional Municipal Commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar.

She had been brought to Mumbai's Noor Hospital in Byculla five days ago for treatment.
Officials expressed surprise that she was admitted and treated for swine flu at a private hospital that was not on the government list of facilities authorised to treat cases of the disease.

Preliminary reports indicated that she had died around 6 a.m. but it was confirmed only much later that she had succumbed to swine flu.

In the Gujarat town Vadodara, a seven-year-old girl died at a government hospital after being under ventilator for two days. She had been brought in for treatment Aug 7, said Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas, adding that she was a resident of Vadodara and had not travelled abroad.

"The girl had no history of how she contracted the virus," the minister said.
The girl's health had been showing some signs of improvement Sunday but deteriorated Monday night.

This was the second death reported in Gujarat on account of the swine flu. The first death was of NRI Pravin Patel who died in the government civil hospital on Sunday.
Pune tops the list of casualties with five deaths so far followed by two in Mumbai and one each in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Vadodara.

A total of 333 people have been affected by the virus in Maharashtra with Pune notching 221, Mumbai (81) and Satara (31).