Pune: A 42-year-old teacher died of swine flu in Pune on Saturday, making it the third death in the country of the disease and second in the city.
Sanjay Tukaram Kokre, a resident of a village near Pune, died at the government-run Sassoon Hospital after being admitted on Friday.
Hospital sources said Kokre was put on ventilator after his condition deteriorated but could not be saved. Reeda Shaikh, 14, became India's first swine flu victim when she died in Pune on Monday.
Famida Panwala, 53, who had diabetes and hypertension, died after being diagnosed with swine flu in Mumbai on Saturday. She was India's second swine flu victim as the influenza A(H1N1) virus continued to spread across the country, infecting 71 new patients including an NRI couple and a number of doctors.
Panwala, a Mumbai resident, died at Kasturba hospital, Maharashtra's Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sharvari Gokhale told IANS in Mumbai.
The total number of people infected by the contagious virus has reached 783, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. Of the 71 fresh cases, Pune recorded 34, Delhi 13, Mumbai 2, Bangalore 10, Chennai seven, Mangalore 3 and Amritsar and Faridabad one each.
Among the states, Maharashtra is the worst affected with over 260 cases. Pune accounts for the majority of them.
"A central team has been deputed today (Saturday) to Pune to assess the situation and institute appropriate public health measures," the ministry said.
In Pune, a medico and a pharmacist, both positive cases of swine flu, continued to be critical for the second day on Saturday at the Sassoon Hospital.
"They are both on ventilators and their condition is causing concern," said Pradeep Awate, head of the state Swine Flu Control Room.
In Mumbai, 28-year-old businessman Sandeep Gaikwad, who was admitted to the Hiranandani Hospital after developing swine flue symptoms last week, turned critical on Friday and was put on a ventilator.
A non-resident Indian couple who arrived in Ahmedabad from the US last month tested positive for swine flu on Saturday.
In Delhi where hundreds of people flocked to testing centres, at least two doctors were home-quarantined with suspected swine flu.
"I am now home-quarantined for two days," S K Sharma, chief medical officer of the swine flu detection centre at the government-run Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital, told IANS.
"We are too much exposed to the virus as we spend over 12 hours in the testing centre. My sample has been sent for tests and the result will come in 48 hours," he said.
In Kolkata two doctors, Ranjit Mandal and Prashanta Sarkar, were admitted to the Infectious Diseases (ID) hospital with symptoms of swine flu. They had fever, cough and cold.
"Their samples have been sent for testing," the state health department's nodal officer for swine flu Tapas Sen told IANS.
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also reported their first swine flu suspects Saturday.
In Pune, except for one case, all new cases are indigenous, most of them social or school contacts.
One among the two cases reported in Mumbai is a six-year-old girl who had travelled from London.
Of the 13 cases in Delhi, two have a travel history. The case admitted in the identified health facility in Faridabad is a 33-year-old man who travelled from Italy. The case from Amritsar is a 26-year-old man who travelled from Dubai and was identified during screening at Delhi airport.
Of the seven cases in Chennai, three are travel-related cases. All 10 cases reported from Bangalore are indigenous. One case reported in Mangalore is a contact of the earlier reported positive case admitted in the same city. The other two had travelled to that city from Delhi and Hyderabad.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
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