Two more women in the city, who had tested positive for influenza H1N1, succumbed to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) taking the death toll to 14 till Saturday. Both have been suffering from the ailment for more than 20 days. The BMC, however, claimed that one of the deaths was not due to swine flu as she was successfully treated for it.
Mira Road resident Urvashi Singh, 27, lost her 20-days battle on Saturday early morning at the Bombay hospital after she succumbed to ARDS. It is a double whammy for Singh’s family as she had delivered a stillborn child on August 17 when she was admitted in a critical condition at the Kasturba Hospital. She had slipped into coma then.
Her family moved her out from the Kasturba Hospital and got her admitted to Bombay hospital for better care. Even before being diagnosed with swine flu, odds were stacked against the family. The family had alleged that they spent five crucial days in making rounds of two public as well as private hospitals. “At this moment we are trying to come to terms with our loss,” said Singh’s brother Om Prakash.
However, the BMC claims that Singh’s case could not be labelled as swine flu death. Executive health officer of BMC Dr Jayaraj Thanekar said, “We allowed her family to shift her to the Bombay hospital only after she had tested negative after the completion of her Tamiflu course.” He added that her samples were sent for re-testing after a week and she had tested negative for influenza H1N1 then. “The possible reason could be the bacterial infection and not the viral one,” he said.
Talking about the second death of A Fransisca, 34, Thanekar said that she may have been affected when swine flu virus had just hit Mumbai. She was admitted to the Holy Spirit Hospital at Andheri on August 5 but her condition deteriorated and she was put on ventilator since August 9. “She tested positive on August 10 but by then she was already given Tamiflu,” said Thanekar.
Meanwhile, the BMC authorities said given the sudden showers in the city, people should be on their toes. “The virus has not gone anywhere and it is still in the air,” said Dr Sanjay Oak, director, major hospitals, BMC. “Our target is to initiate Tamiflu in the first 34 hours to weaken the viral attack,” he said.
