Mumbai, August 09: India on Saturday recorded the second swine flu death with a 53-year-old woman succumbing here five days after a teenaged Pune girl died of the dreaded disease as the number of people afflicted by the virus went up sharply across the country.
Seventy two fresh positive swine flu cases were reported from across the country, with 34 of them in Pune, the epicentre of the disease, alone and the first person to get the disease in Lucknow is a five-year-old boy.
Fahmida Panwala, who was diabetic and suffered from hypertension, was shifted to Municipal Kasturba Hospital from private Lilavati hospital in a critical condition last night and succumbed today.
She tested positive of H1N1 after a swab test and died in the afternoon, Umesh Aigal, Chief Medical Superintendent, Kasturba hospital, told a news agency.
Mumbai civic body officials said Panwala was first admitted to a private nursing home at Jogeshwari locality with swine flu symptoms three days back and shifted to Leelawati Hospital yesterday when her condition showed no sign of improvement. After a three-hour stay at Leelawati, she was transferred to Kasturba Hospital yesterday.
Her swab was sent to National Institute of Virology in Pune last night for test whose result today confirmed she was suffering from the disease.
Jairaj Thalekar, Brihanmumbai Municipal Coporation (BMC) Health Officer, said Panwala had been suffering from fever for the past seven days.
She was given Tamiflu even before the test report came from NIV and put on ventillator as she developed acute respiratory problem.
Thalekar said doctors could not do much to save Panwala who was already in a critical condition when she was admitted. Besides, she was suffering from diabetes and hypertension and this was the reason why swine flu “acted very fast”.
Fourteen-year-old Reeda Shaikh, a class nine student of Saint Anne’s girls High School in Pune, was the first victim of the disease on August 3.
In Mumbai, 16 new H1N1 cases have been detected besides 40 in Pune. Two are said to be in serious condition.
A total of 77 swine flu positive cases are under treatment in Mumbai and Pune.
Sandeep Gaikwad, a 28-year-old youth, was admitted to private Hiranandani hospital here with swine flu symptoms and is stated to be in “very critical” condition, manager of the medical facility, Manish Joshi, said.
–Agencies