Swine flu claims first victim in Bangalore, toll rises to 20

Bangalore/Pune, Aug 13 (PTI) The swine flu pandemic has
claimed its first victim in the IT hub at south Indian city of
Bangalore when a 26-year-old woman succumbed to the virus
while severely hit Pune on Thursday registered two deaths,
taking the countrywide toll due to the infection to 20.

The woman, identified as Roopa, a teacher in a private
school, had tested positive for the virus and was undergoing
treatment at Bangalore's St. Philomena hospital also for
respiratory disorders, health authorities said.

A mother of two children aged between six and four,
Roopa was hospitalised on August seven with pneumonia, and
later tested positive for swine flu, they said. She was also
suffering from high blood sugar, they said.

Following her death, the health authorities have
advised the school, Sudarshan Vidyalaya, where she was taking
classes till last week, to declare a break and subject
students and her colleagues to flu tests as a precautionary
measure, they said.

An eleven-month-old boy Rutwik Kamle and a 75-year-old
woman Bharti Goyal died today in Pune, taking the toll in the
Maharashtra city, severely hit by the virus, to 12 and across
the country to 20.

Rutwik was admitted first to a private hospital and
then shifted to government-run Sassoon Hospital Wednesday
evening in a serious condition, official sources said. He died
early Thursday morning. Goyal, who was suffering from the
viral infection, died in KEM Hospital in Pune, they said.

Besides the Pune deaths, one person each has succumbed
to the virus in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Nashik,
Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram and two in Mumbai.

A 40-year-old mother and her 14-year-old son, who
arrived in Chennai from Toronto, were quarantined with
suspected swine flu symptoms on Thursday, according to airport
officials in Chennai.

They were quarantined at the Communicable Diseases
Hospital at Tondiarpet near south Indian city of Chennai, they
said.

So far, 53 cases have tested positive in Tamil Nadu. A
four-and-a-half- year-old boy, also suffering from
multiple-organ failure, became the first flu victim in Chennai
on Monday.

Ten people Wednesday night tested positive for swine
flu in west Indian state of Gujarat, taking the total number
of those afflicted by the disease countrywide to 1,203.

While Pune remained the worst-hit area by the disease
with 61 new cases being reported from the city, Gujarat's 10
new cases took the number of those infected to 27 in the
state.

"All test results that were pending have come and
according to them, 10 more people, including three women,
have tested positive for swine flu," Gujarat Principal
Secretary Health Ravi Saxena told PTI. PTI Team
SDE
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