Mumbai, August 8
India has a second swine flu death with a woman succumbing to the H1N1 virus. The victim Fahima Paanwala, 53, from Mumbai died at the Kasturba Hospital this evening. The first victim was Rida Shaikh, 14, from Pune who died on Monday.
Fahima was earlier admitted to Lilavati Hospital after showing symptoms of pneumonia and hypertension earlier this week. However, she was shifted to Kasturba Hospital after tests conducted on her for swine flu were positive. The patient had been admitted to Kasturba Hospital only today, Additional Chief Secretary Sarvari Gokhale told reporters.
Fahima was not among the patients listed by the Maharashtra government’s swine flu cell as a victim of the virus.
For the first time today, health officials in the state admitted that patients with no record of foreign travel are reporting positive for swine flu. In other words, the disease has been passed on locally.
In Pune one village school teacher with no record of foreign travel tested positive for swine flu, health officials said. The man is on a ventilator. No other details were available.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Government has decided to rope in private hospitals to take care of swine flu patients as government institutions in Pune and Mumbai are getting flooded with patients.
According to sources, Chief Secretary of Maharashtra Johny Joseph is putting together norms for private hospitals to be designated as centres for treating people suffering from the H1N1 virus. At present, Naidu and Sassoon hospitals in Pune and Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai have been designated for treating such patients. However, with the number of such cases increasing, isolation wards have been set up at government and municipal hospitals in these cities.
In all 30 new cases of swine flu have been reported in Maharashtra in the past 24 hours till today evening, officials said today. The Kasturba Hospital at Mumbai recorded 18 patients admitted with swine flu symptoms till this afternoon. Of these seven have tested positive.
The government is also putting in place directives under which government institutions and the National Institute of Virology will accept samples from patients admitted to private hospitals.
Health officials in Mumbai and Pune have also complained about lack of ventilators at the two hospitals. According to doctors at Naidu Hospital, there are just two ventilators at the hospital while they need at least 20 to cope with the rush. Kasturba Hospital doctors warn that a sudden influx of patients can precipitate a crisis. The hospital has 100 beds earmarked for swine flu cases.
So far only one person, a 26-year-old youth, has been admitted in a critical condition to private LH Hiranandani Hospital at Powai in Mumbai. Doctors from Kasturba Hospital are treating him as he is too weak to be shifted there.
Hiranandani Hospital officials said the patient, Sandeep Gaikwad, was admitted on August 3 and he tested positive on Friday evening. His condition was stable this afternoon, doctors said.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai civic body has designated new hospitals for admitting swine flu victims. Siddharth Hospital in Goregoan and MT Agrawal Hospital in Mulund will have one ward each for suspected swine flu cases and another for confirmed cases. These facilities will become operational from
Monday.
