Don’t ignore fever, cough: Ten-year-old boy dies of swine flu in Mumbai suburb

Since January, around 25 people have died of swine flu across Thane district out of which 16 cases are from Thane city.

A 10-year-old boy died of swine flu near Mumbai on Monday.

Aryan Medhekar, son of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Deepak Medhekar, was admitted to a private hospital.

A Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) official said, “Deepak Medhekar’s son is the 15th victim of the disease since the onset of monsoon.”

Since January, around 25 people have died of swine flu across Thane district out of which 16 cases are from Thane city.

Since January, there have been 718 suspected cases of swine flu in the district out of which 605 were confirmed, he added.

The city has a shortage of swine flu vaccines. The vaccine is available in private hospitals but is out of stock in government hospitals.

A TMC official said, “The vaccines are useless after three weeks and so we cannot use the old stock to treat patients. Moreover, the infection has spread in the entire country, leading to shortage of stock.”