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Swine flu claims third victim in Tamil Nadu

Swine flu on Saturday claimed its third victim in Tamil Nadu with a 45-year-old man succumbing to the disease at the government hospital in Chennai.

Updated on: Aug 22, 2009, 16:04:10 IST
PTI | By , Chennai
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Swine flu on Saturday claimed its third victim in Tamil Nadu with a 45-year-old man succumbing to the disease at the government hospital in Chennai.

HT Image
HT Image

The man, who died late on Friday night, was admitted to the surgical ward of the hospital on August 12 with complaints of breathlessness and bleeding piles .

He was also a "patient of old-pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diagnosed as grade-3 haemorrhoids and anaemia with bronchial asthma," General Hospital Dean Mohana Sundaram told reporters.

As his breathlessness worsened he was transferred to the medical unit on August 15, but he developed fever two days later and swine flu was suspected. He was then transferred to an isolation ward, he said.

His throat swabs tested positive on August 19.

The man had not travelled through H1N1 infected areas nor he had any contact with patients afflicted with swine flu, he said.

This is the second death at the hospital after a 47-year-old man succumbed to the disease on August 20.

A total of 38 suspected swine flu cases were admitted to the hospital since June one and of these six tested positive. Of this six, the virus has claimed two lives.

The first swine flu fatality in the state was reported on August 10, when a four-and-a-half year old boy succumbed to the disease at a private hospital in Chennai.

The King Institute, the lone authorised testing centre here, has analysed 7515 samples so far of which 162 have tested positive.

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