Siddhesh Inamdar

Mumbai: A 62-year-old woman from Thane and a 13-year-old girl from Pune have died of swine flu. Of the seven deaths caused by the infection in Maharashtra, five are from Pune, while one is from Mumbai and the other from Thane.

However, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Executive Health Officer Jairaj Thanekar said here on Tuesday: “The death of Saeeda Daruwala from Mumbra in Thane should not be seen as an H1N1 death. She was already suffering from ischaemic [characterised by reduced blood supply to the heart muscle] and severe diabetes. H1N1 could at most have been a second factor. Considering her age and the other health complications, this death should not be counted as a swine flu death.”

In the early hours of Tuesday, Shruti Gawade, a student of Pune’s Ahilyadevi High School, fell victim to the virus. The head of Maharashtra’s swine flu cell, Pradeep Awate, said she was referred to the Sassoon hospital by Pune’s KEM Hospital after it suspected she had swine flu symptoms. She was admitted to Sassoon on August 7 with viral pneumonitis and breathlessness. She tested positive the next day and was immediately started on a dose of Tamiflu. She was kept on ventilator. However, her condition worsened and she died at 1.30 a.m. on Tuesday.

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