8-yr-old girl dies, H1N1 suspected

Mumbai: Maharashtra recorded its first suspected H1N1 casualty this year when an eight-year-old girl from Pune supposedly succum-bed to the diseased around 12.55 pm on Wednesday.

The health officer said that they have set up a death review committee that will confirm her cause of death.

“The girl had tested positive for H1N1. She succumbed to swine flu-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). She was admitted in privately-run Ruby Hall Clinic,” said a health official.

The girl had developed an influenza-like illness on December 31 last year. She had a cough, cold and fever for several days and later developed breathlessness. She was rushed to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on January 5.

Dr Pradeep Awate, state surveillance officer, said, “The patient had the history of thalassemia and was on immunosuppressant as we got the details from the hospital.”

He also said, “We have a swine death review committee, which will confirm the cause of the girl’s death. We can’t say it was swine flu, but, yes, the symptoms were of swine flu.”

In another reported case of swine flu, a 52-year-old man from Ahmednagar had taken ill and his condition is said to be critical. He has been put on ventilator support.

A state health official said, “As many as four patients have tested positive for swine flu, mainly from the Pune region in Maharashtra.”

Medical experts have advised precautionary measures in view of the fluctuating weather conditions, which provide an ideal setting for the growth of influenza viruses, including swine flu. The virus had claimed 461 lives and infected 2,593 people across the state in 2018.

The viral infection claimed 85 lives in the first three months of 2017 while there were only 25 deaths in the corresponding period of 2016.

In December last year, state health services officials, while emphasising on the importance of spreading awareness about tuberculosis (TB), emphasised that TB claims more lives than swine flu every year.