Mumbai: Swine flu claims three more lives in five days

With three more people dying of swine flu in Mumbai in the past five days, doctors said the mortality rate as result of the airborne infection is ‘worrying’.

With three more people dying of swine flu in Mumbai in the past five days, doctors said the mortality rate as result of the airborne infection is ‘worrying’.

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The latest victim of the H1N1 infection is a two-year-old girl from Chembur, who died at Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar on Monday. She died within two days of hospitalisation despite being administered oseltamivir (anti-swine flu drug), said civic officials.

On the average, three to four cases of swine flu are being treated daily. In the past three days, 49 cases of H1N1 have been reported to the civic body. In August, nine people have succumbed to the infection already.

Read: Steady rise of H1N1 in Mumbai worries docs

This year, 2,269 swine flu cases have been reported to the civic epidemiology and 36 people have died so far.

Unlike in the past, doctors said people without pre-existing illnesses are succumbing to the infection within a few days of contracting it. “The virus’s own interaction with the host immune response is changing in a way that people with no co-morbidities do not have a chance to fight the virus. This aspect needs to be studied,” said, Dr Om Shrivastav, infectious disease consultant who is treating 23 swine flu patients.

Meanwhile, in the past three days, six new cases of leptospirosis were reported to the epidemiology cell. The civic body is conducting camps to screen people with symptoms of leptospirosis.