Swine flu claims two lives in Delhi

Samrat Pandaya, 31, a resident of Gurgaon, died on Thursday, four days after he was rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi. He had been kept on a ventilator and his heart and lungs stopped working, said N.K. Chaturvedi, the hospital's medical superintendent.

Pandeya, a resident of neighbouring Gurgaon, had been initially treated at private hospitals and later brought to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, a doctor said.

He was admitted to the hospital on August 14 with symptoms of fever, breathlessness and signs of pneumonia, the doctor said, adding that he tested positive for swine flu and on the evening of August 15, his condition had turned critical.

Samrat's father has alleged that his son died due to the doctors' negligence.

Renu Gupta, a resident of Model Town in Delhi, who had returned from Singapore on August 15 and had developed flu symptoms three days back, was admitted to RML hospital in a critical state during the day yesterday and was put on a ventilator, they said.

The other death was of Renu Gupta, who died on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, Mumbai with 48 new flu patients topped the list of fresh cases yesterday followed by Pune (36), Chennai (30) and Delhi (25), a Health Ministry official said.

The other cases were from Bangalore (17), Nagpur (13), Coimbatore (9), Dhule (5), Gurgaon, Nashik, Latur, Aurangabad, Rajkot (three each), Naned, Ratnagiri, Beed, Surat (two each) and Ahmednagar, Kholapur, Satara, Diburgarh, Jamnagar, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Daman, Mangalore and Buldan (one each).

Out of the 25 cases reported from Delhi, only three cases have foreign travel history.

"11,724 persons have been tested so far out of which 2,242 are positive for swine flu. Of the 2242 positive cases, 758 have been discharged," the official said.