Swine flu: Death toll rises to 119 in India

http://www.newkerala.com/
New Delhi, Sept 5 : With two women in Hyderabad and a man in Pune dying of the deadly H1N1 virus, the death toll in swine flu in India rose to 119 Saturday.

Thirty-eight-year-old resident of Bholakpur area in Hyderabad, Rupa Devi, who was admitted to government-run Chest Hospital in Hyderabad last week, died Saturday, said health officials. The second death reported is that of Kadapa town resident Lakshmi Devi.

At present 126 swine flu cases have been reported in Hyderabad, said health department records.

The same day (Saturday), a man died of the deadly viral disease in Pune, taking the toll to 34 in the city.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday said swine flu has claimed at least 2,840 lives across the world and over 2.5 lakh of confirmed cases of the virus have been reported.

'At least 254,000 laboratory confirmed cases of H1N1 virus has been reported from all over the world, which means that actual number could be much more,' WHO's Gregory Hartl said at a news conference in Geneva.

'With the virus circulating so widely around the world, it is unfortunately to be expected that there will be deaths as the volume of cases and deaths is increasing,' he said.

According to the latest update issued by WHO, tropical regions of South and South-East Asia continue to experience geographically regional or widespread influenza activity in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Many countries in the region are reporting increasing or sustained high levels of respiratory disease, and a few, including Thailand and Brunei Darussalam, have begun to report a declining trend in the level of respiratory diseases, reported Times Now.

--IBNS