Six more H1N1 deaths, including four from Bengaluru, were reported on Tuesday. This takes the death toll in the State to 25.
Of the six, three are from BBMP limits, one each from Bengaluru Rural and Bengaluru Urban and another from Tumakuru. According to statistics provided by the Health Department, of the total 1,195 samples, 349 have tested positive so far.
With five H1N1 deaths reported in a span of two months in the districts of Bombay-Karnataka and parts of central Karnataka, the people of these districts are a worried lot.
Although Vijayapura district has recorded two deaths, health officials confirmed the death of one person. The districts of Gadag, Dharwad, Chitradurga have each registered one death each and the number of suspected cases are also on the rise there.
What has created panic among the people here is that doctors and patients have to depend on clinical laboratories in Manipal and Bengaluru to test samples. This region does not have a single laboratory. The Health Minister recently announced that laboratories would be set up here next year.
State Drugs Controller Raghuram Bhandary said there was no shortage of H1N1 drugs in the State. All government and corporate hospitals had adequate stocks of Oseltamivir (Tamiflu).
( Inputs from Vijaykumar Patil, Firoz Rozindar, Pradeep Kumar Kadkol, Dinesh Nayak, Girish Pattanshetti )
