Another 50 dead as swine flu shows no sign of let-up

Swine flu has claimed another 50 lives in the country taking the death toll to 1,289 while close to 24,000 people had contracted the contagious disease, according to the government.

The Union Health Ministry said that while the total number of people who have died has reached 1,289 and those affected by it across various states stands at 23,922 as on March 5 this year.

The Ministry had yesterday said that the nationwide death toll from the disease was 1,239, while as on March 4, the number of those who have contracted the disease has reached 23,153.

While the number of people affected by the disease showed an upward trend in Gujarat with 5,236 people, the death toll today reached 311 in the Western state.  The number of people who have perished to the disease in Rajasthan too crossed the 300 mark today as data showed that 302 people have perished to the disease while 5,856 people are affected by it.

The affected people in Maharashtra too inched towards the 200-mark as 196 people have perished while the number of persons affected with the disease is 2,290.
In Madhya Pradesh, 183 persons have succumbed to the disease while 1,336 people are affected by it.

Although the number of deaths in Delhi remained at ten, the city witnessed a rise in the number of persons affected by it as it reached 3,354.

In Karnataka, as many as 1,602 people are affected by swine flu while the death toll has reached 53 while in Telangana, 1,699 people are affected by the disease and 61 have perished to the disease.

Kerala too has witnessed nine deaths while in Haryana, 27 people have died due to the disease. In Punjab, 47 people have perished to swine flu. Tamil Nadu too has witnessed 11 deaths.  In Jammu and Kashmir, ten people have died while 14 deaths have been reported in Andhra Pradesh.