Kin of swine flu victim blames wrong diagnosis

Pune, Aug 4 (ANI): Family members of the 14-year-old girl who died of swine flu in Pune, blame the doctors for failing to detect the disease in time which lead to her death.

Reeda Shiekh, a resident of Pune's camp area, was admitted to a hospital last month with symptoms of sore throat, running nose and headache, a government statement said. She was put on a ventilator after her condition deteriorated.

The hospital authorities who had carried the tests following the directions of government and health officials did not report that she was infected by swine flu.

"The government took fast action, they sent their people, they made them ask us, they made our children go. We were given precautions but the people did not tell us that my child has swine flu. We got to know on Thursday night She was never admitted and discharged. We took medicines from a general practitioner," said, Ayesha Sheik, aunt of Reeda.

The officials at Jehangir Hospital where she was admitted however said that they have kept everyone in the family informed about her condition.

"From the hospital perspective we had kept everyone in the loop from the time we started suspecting and when patient came to be positive," said Prasad Mulgikar, medical superintendent, Jehangir hospital.

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the teenager's life could have been saved if there was medical intervention in time suggesting there was a delay in treatment.

"The girl had first gone to a private hospital who treated her for normal flu. When she did not recover, she got herself admitted to another private hospital where again she was treated not for H1N1 but for pneumonia. After having treated her for two days, the private hospital realized that there is some more than pneumonia. But by that time it was too late for the medicine to affect," he added.

India has reported 551 swine flu cases of which 422 have been discharged.

Maharashtra the worst hit, as it has so far reported majority of the cases in the country.

Test reports of two students and a 26-year-old youth, who had returned from Germany, on August 2 confirmed flu, the officials said adding they had been moved to an isolation ward at civic Naidu hospital.

The total number of confirmed cases of H1N1 virus are 101 in the city, the report stated health officials as saying. As many as 64 cases of swine slu in the city have so far been discharged after treatment. The total number of H1N1 infection in Maharashtra now stands at 147. (ANI)