Swine flu surge in Chhattisgarh, death toll reaches 18
The latest victim, a 91-year-old woman from Bilaspur, succumbed on Tuesday after testing positive on August 24. She was undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospital but could not be saved.
A 35-year-old woman died of swine flu here, the first H1N1 fatality reported in the city this year, an official said on Saturday.
Asha Pandit, district in-charge of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), said the woman, who was receiving treatment for H1N1 virus, died on Friday at a private hospital here.
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The woman, a resident of Kanadiya here, was undergoing treatment for the past 20 days but could not be saved, Pandit said.
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The victim, the first to succumb to the deadly virus in the city this year, was also suffering from arthritis and diabetes, she said.
Since January 1, 18 patients had been tested for swine flu in different hospitals of the district. The woman who died was the only one among them to test positive for the highly- contagious virus, she added.
H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu, is a respiratory flu with symptoms like fever, sore throat, cough, headache, runny nose, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.
Like other strains of the flu, H1N1 is highly contagious and spreads quickly from person to person. It was declared a pandemic in 2009 by the WHO.
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