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H1N1 kills Pune teacher, Mumbai housewife (India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/pune/H1N1-kills-Pune-teacher-Mumbai-housewife/articleshow/4872656.cms
Malathy Iyer & Sharad Vyas, TNN 9 August 2009

PUNE/MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The highly infectious H1N1 virus claimed two lives on Saturday,with a 33-year-old Mumbai woman and a 42-year-old Pune school teacher succumbing to it. This comes five days after the death of Pune schoolgirl Reeda Sheikh, the country’s first swine flu casualty.

Pune’s latest victim was Sanjay Tukaram Kokre who died at Sassoon Hospital around 12.30am. He had been put on a ventilator since he was admitted to the hospital’s critical care unit as a suspected H1N1 patient. He was moved to the confirmed H1N1 cases CCU on Saturday afternoon after the National Institute of Virology (NIV) confirmed that he was H1N1 positive.

Two more suspected H1N1 patients have also been admitted to Sassoon Hospital even as a doctor and a chemist continue to battle for life.

In Mumbai, flu claimed the life of Fehmida Panwalla, a housewife.

Civic officials, however, were at pains to point out that she was brought to Kasturba Hospital in a critical condition and had a history of diabetes and hypertension. It is an established medical fact that the H1N1 infection is severe in people who have an underlying condition such as diabetes or heart disease.

Asked whether the hospitals she was admitted to earlier had established if she had travelled abroad, her doctor said, ‘‘This was probably not thought about at that stage.’’

It is still not clear how Panwalla contracted H1N1. Overall, India is now seeing a spike in secondary cases of H1N1 infection — people who haven’t travelled to an infected country but may have got the virus from an infected individual.

Of the 3,624 people tested till now, 782 were found to be positive. Of these cases, 511 have been discharged. A central team has been sent to Pune to assess the situation and institute appropriate public healthcare measures.

Meanwhile on Saturday, India recorded 71 new cases of H1N1 - Pune (34), Mumbai (2), Chennai (7), Delhi (13), Amritsar (1), Faridabad (1) Bangalore (10), Manipal/Mangalore (3). Of these, almost 59 cases were of secondary infection.

Of the 13 cases in Delhi, two have a history of travelling abroad — an 11-year-old who came from Singapore and a 13-year-old who arrived from Manchester, UK.