Swine flu claimed three more lives, two of them in Chhattisgarh, taking the total number of casualties in the country to 25, even as the government decided to issue new guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of suspected cases.
Parubhai Shinde (70), who was admitted to hospital in Pune four days ago following high fever and other symptoms of swine flu, died on Thursday, officials said. With this, the toll in Pune, ground zero of the disease, mounted to 15.
Sitaram Varma (18) died in Raipur on Thursday of suspected swine flu — the first fatality in Chhattisgarh. CRPF constable Y.S. Rao (40), who had recently visited Mumbai, died in Bilaspur on Friday.
Varma, hailing from Bhilai, was suffering from pneumonia, hospital sources said. Varma’s throat swab was sent to Delhi for the flu test as the boy had recently visited Pune.
The viral infection has claimed the lives of one person each in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Nashik, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Raipur and Bilaspur and two each in Mumbai and Bangalore. On Friday, 117 cases were reported across the country.
