3 more Indians die of swine flu

Swine flu claimed three more lives yesterday, raising the total number of those succumbing to the disease across the country to 10.
A 13-year-old school student in the western Indian city of Pune, a seven-year-old girl at Baroda in Gujarat and a 63-year-old woman in Thane, adjacent to India's financial hub Mumbai, died of the disease, officials here said.
Shruti Gawade, a school student, died of H1N1 in Pune yesterday morning became the fifth victim of the virus in the state of Maharashtra. Five of them died in Pune while one in Mumbai.
She had been kept on ventilator since August 7 when she was taken to Pune in a critical condition after being referred from a private hospital, said Pandurang Pawar, medical superintendent of government-owned Sasoon Hospital in Pune.
The woman who died in Thane was identified as Sayeeda Dorjeewala. Fahmida Panwala, another woman who was suffering from high diabetes and hypertension, died of swine flu in Mumbai two days ago.
The seven-year-old who died in Baroda is the second swine flu victim in Gujarat after a non-resident Indian succumbed last Sunday.
The disease claimed the life of a four-year-old boy while a 32-year-old ayurvedic practitioner and a 35-year-old chemist also succumbed in Pune Monday. Pune recorded India's first swine flu death--that of a 14-year-old girl--on August 3.
Given the spurt in swine flu cases in Pune, Maharashtra government ordered closure of all schools and colleges in the city for a week and theatres and multiplexes for three days.
With swine flu cases in the country reaching near the 1,000 mark, the Indian government rolled out fresh initiatives to contain the spread of the deadly H1N1 virus allowing private labs to conduct tests for the disease and private hospitals to provide treatment.
On Monday, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the press here that screening of all passengers coming from abroad would continue at all international airports. Of the 4,084 people tested so far, 633 were detected through screening, he added.
Thermal scanners to identify people with fever has been installed in four airports and such scanners would be set up at all international airports in the country, Azad said.
The government, however, made it clear that there was no need to panic as out of a total number of 959 cases, 563 have been treated and sent back home while 396 are undergoing treatment.
Eight deaths have been reported so far--five in Pune and one each in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chennai.
Azad said anti-swine flu vaccines would be imported to immunise medical and paramedical staff involved in treating and testing H1N1 patients.
He said three companies in India are in the process of manufacturing the vaccines, one of which is already conducting trials on animals.
With a sharp rise in the number of patients for testing, the government is planning to manufacture an indigenous low-cost testing kit, which can lower the cost down to one tenth. Each test costs the government Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
The government, meanwhile, has decided to procure another 22,000 testing kits immediately in addition to 27,000 kits already there.
Azad also asked Chief Ministers of 22 Indian states to take urgent measures to tackle the spread of the dreaded virus.