HINI virus: Three more die, death toll crosses 50 mark

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) Three more persons, including one
in worst-hit Pune, succumbed to the swine flu on Saturday,
pushing the country-wide fatalities from the HINI pandemic to
51.

A death each occurred in Pune, Tamil Nadu and Goa with
four more testing positive for the virus in Assam even as
close to 2,600 patients were undergoing treatment across the
country.

With a 60-year-old man succumbing to the disease in Pune
in Maharashtra, the city recorded its 20th swine flu death.

All educational institutions in Pune, which reported its
first fatality on August three, had been shut for the past one
week to prevent the spread of the infection.

The flu claimed its third victim in Tamil Nadu when a
45-year-old man died at the government hospital in Chennai.

The man, whose throat swabs tested positive on August 19,
was admitted to the hospital on August 12 with complaints of
breathlessness and bleeding piles.

A 67-year-old man, suspected to be suffering from the
swine flu, died at a private hospital in Goa, health officials
in state capital Panaji said.

Shiva Murthy, who arrived from Bangalore on Friday, was
admitted to the hospital with high fever, they said adding he
breathed his last Saturday morning.

His throat swabs had been sent for HINI testing to Delhi
and the reports were awaited, the officials said.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi denied media reports
about the death of an 18-year-old girl due the virus in the
state where four had tested positive for HINI.

"Reports about the swine flu death in the state are not
based based on facts. There has been no such death," Gogoi
told reporters in Guwahati.

In the national capital, three of the seven suspected
HINI patients, admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, were
critical and had been shifted to the ICU, doctors said.

With the three fresh flu deaths, Maharashtra accounted
for 23 fatalities, the highest in the country, followed by
Karnataka (12).

Five people had succumbed to the virus in Gujarat, three
each in Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, two in Delhi and and one
each in Kerala, Uttarakhand and Goa.

Till Friday, the number of those afflicted with the
deadly virus stood at 2,539. PTI TEAM
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