A 36-year-old foreign national from Zimbabwe and one eight-month-old boy from Nacharam died of swine flu complications at Gandhi Hospital while a 36-year-old patient from Parvath Nagar in Motinagar also died at a private hospital in Hyderabad, taking death toll to three on Wednesday. With this, the overall swine flu toll this season has reached 50 here.
The deceased woman from Zimbabwe came for training at the National Institute of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (NISIET), Yousufguda, was admitted to Gandhi Hospital on January 19. After the initial anti-viral treatment, the woman showed signs of recovery before her sudden death in the evening.
Doctors said the preliminary cause of death was due to viral myocarditis, which is abnormal inflammation of the heart muscle usually caused by viral infection. Young healthy adults without any history of heart ailments but have tested positive for H1N1 usually do have acute myocarditis or quite often even myocardial infarction, commonly known as heart attack. The Zimbabwean was apparently unwell from day one with typical symptoms of swine flu. Later, she was rushed to Gandhi Hospital for treatment. “She was young and immediately showed signs of recovery after anti-viral treatment. We expected her to recover but she passed away all of a sudden,” doctors said. Gandhi Hospital now has over 20 swine flu patients, and five H1N1 positive children.
