A 48-year old woman from Bhopal succumbed to swine flu late Sunday in Pune, taking the death toll in Maharashtra to 21.
The pace of the infection since January 2015 has set alarm bells ringing in Pune with the city registering seven deaths so far. Since the beginning of the New Year, more than 70 cases of swine flu have been reported in the State, with Nagpur and Pune registering more than 30 cases each.
The virus has claimed 10 people in Nagpur so far. The first death during the 2009 swine flu pandemic occurred in Pune.
Worried scientists at the city’s National Institute of Virology (NIV) have pressed the State government for implementing more awareness drives about universal respiratory hygiene besides increasing vaccination of high-risk groups like children under five years and the elderly.
The State Health department has already directed civil surgeons in all districts to keep their preventive medical gear in readiness.
