With the swab samples of six more persons including two women, (who died earlier in Bangalore) testing positive for H1N1 virus, the swine flu toll in Karnataka rose to 40 on Friday, health officials said.
The officials at the state health department, on condition of anonymity, said these cases were being termed "old" ones, as they "don't want to create panic". The yesterday's H1N1 toll was 34.
"A majority of the casualties due to the virus has been because of co-infection and also as the patients came to hospital in a critical state," the officials said.
Health authorities said 18 persons tested positive for swine flu today, pushing up the number of confirmed cases to 554 in the state.
