Student dies of suspected A(H1N1)

Total number of deaths due to the virus in the country stands at 31

As many as  99 fresh cases have been reported from various states till Tuesday and the total count of those affected has mounted to 2,026 across the country.

The engineering student, Raunak Singh, a resident of Race Course locality in Dehradun, was admitted on Monday with swine flu-like symptoms to Coronation hospital where his condition deteriorated, doctors said.

His family members on Tuesday decided to take Singh to the AIIMS in New Delhi. Singh died Tuesday night near Meerut on the way to Delhi.

Doctors in Dehradun said his swab samples have been sent for tests. The swab samples of Singh’s relatives have also been sent for tests as a precautionary measure.

So far, 31 flu deaths have taken place across the country—18 people in Maharashtra, including 13 in Pune and three in Mumbai, five in Karnataka, three in Gujarat, two in Chhattisgarh and one each in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Uttarakhand.

In the backdrop of the rising number of flu cases, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar chaired a meeting of top government officials in Delhi on Tuesday to review the situation and the measures being taken by the Health Ministry to contain the spread of the disease.

Of the fresh cases, Delhi reported 10, while Bangalore and Mumbai recorded 20 each, official sources. Pune registered 18 cases. While Aurangabad, Ahmedabad and Dhule reported three cases each, Panchkula, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kozhikkode, Nashik and Dibrugarh recorded two cases each, they said in Delhi.

Ghaziabad, Goa, Udupi, Manipal, Surat, Silchar, Kolhapur and Satara reported one each while the two cases reported from Kochi have a travel history to Dubai. One of the cases reported from Delhi had a travel history to Thailand while two others have travelled to Australia, the sources said. One of the two cases reported from Hyderabad has a travel history to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

A total of 10,578 people have been tested so far out of which 2,026 tested positive for swine flu. Of the 2,026 positive cases, 708 have been discharged, they added.

PTI