Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) India Monday reported seven more swine flu deaths, four of them in Maharashtra, the state worst affected by the virus, taking to 100 the total toll across the country due to H1N1 virus, health authorities said here.
Of the 100 deaths, Maharashtra alone has recorded 55 deaths. While Chattishgarh reported its first death Monday, two people died in Karnataka, officials said. The first swine flu death was reported in India Aug 3.

Also, 106 people were tested positive for the influenza A (H1N1) virus Monday in the country. With these fresh cases, the total number of people affected with the flu has gone up to 3,987.

Among the states, Maharashtra continued to top the charts both in terms of deaths and positive cases. On Monday, of the total 106 cases, 48 were from the state alone. So far, about 1,639 people have been affected due to the virus in the state.

Delhi follows Maharashtra as far as number of cases are concerned. About 655 people have been infected with the disease. On Monday, 12 fresh cases were reported in the Indian capital.

The southern state of Karnataka reported 11 fresh cases, taking the total number of people infected with the disease to 441 - the third highest in the country. India’s first case was reported in the state May 16.

Other fresh cases were reported from Tamil Nadu (15), Uttar Pradesh (7) and Kerala (5). Both Haryana and West Bengal had two cases each, while Goa, Uttarakhand, Mizoram and Rajasthan had one case respectively.

The union health ministry, which is planning guidelines for selling the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu in the open market in another 10 days, said many steps were being taken to contain the disease.

“So far, 21,937 people have been tested for influenza A (H1N1) in various government laboratories across the country and 3,987 of them have been found positive,” a statement issued here said.

The officials said that of the total samples that were tested, 4.5 percent were those that were detected at the 22 airports.