By IANS,
Pune : Six people succumbed to the H1N1 virus in India Wednesday, including five from the same hospital in this “epidemic” city, taking the death toll in the country to 17. The sixth death was reported from Maharashtra’s Nashik town.
The five who died in Pune were Gautam Shelar, a 48-year-old driver, Nita Meghani, 50, Babu Genu Kuland, a school student, Sanjay Mistry, 35, and Shravani Deshpande, 29, a Maharashtra Swine Flu Control Room official said.
They all died at the Sassoon Hospital, which has been handling very serious cases of swine flu in this second largest city of Maharashtra.
Shelar was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition three-four days ago and died around 4.45 p.m. His death came barely an hour after Meghani died.
Babu died in the same hospital at about 11 a.m. A resident of Pimpri town near here, Babu was hospitalised three days ago in a serious condition, according to Pune Municipal Corporation (Health Department) chief S.R. Pardeshi.
Mistry, another Pimpri resident, died in the wee hours of Wednesday. He was hospitalised Sunday in a critical condition and put on a ventilator.
Within hours, Deshpande died of the A(H1N1) influenza around 3 a.m. She had been hospitalised here three days ago with pneumonia and later found to be suffering from swine flu. She was then put on ventilator.
Around the same time, Rakesh Gargunde, a doctor with the Civil Hospital in Nashik city, also succumbed to the flu, said civil surgeon A.D Bhal Singh.
Gargunde was admitted to hospital in an unconscious state two days ago and put on a ventilator. The test report confirming that he had swine flu was received by the hospital late Tuesday.
Wednesday saw the highest number of deaths in a day since the first victim, Reeda Sheikh, 14, died in Pune Aug 3.
At least four patients continued to be in a serious condition at the Sassoon hospital, Pune District Collector Chandrakant Dalvi told reporters.
In Mumbai’s Hiranandani Hospital, two swine flu patients were in serious condition.
Pune has already been declared an epidemic city, while the Maharashtra government has announced unprecedented measures across the state to contain the spread of the deadly virus.
While Maharashtra accounts for 13 deaths — 10 in Pune, two in Mumbai and one in Nashik – one death each has been reported from Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai.