Pune girl becomes 1st to die of Swine Flu in India

Pune, Aug 4: Just a day after the first Indian died of the Swine Flu in Singapore, the virus claimed the life of 14-year-old Rhia Shaikh in Pune accounting for India's first Swine Flu death.

Rhia Shaikh died of multiple organ failure at the Jehangir Hospital in Pune. The girl who was a Class IX student of St Anne"s Girls High School in the city reported symptoms of flu on Jul 21.

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After getting treated by a general practitioner, her condition improved and she started going to school again. But on Jul 27 the fever returned and she was admitted at Jehangir Hospital.

When her lung aspirate was sent to the National Institute of Virology on Jul 31, she tested positive for H1N1 influenza or the Swine Flu. The girl who had been put on had been put on Oseltamivir deteriorated rapidly in spite of the measures taken to save her, the doctors said.

The death brings to question the Health Ministry's contention that the country has only been hit 'mildly' by the flu.

OneIndia News