Bareilly: Vivek Sharma (43), who was posted as sub-registrar in Rampur’s Milak and is a native of Bareilly, died due to swine flu while undergoing treatment at SRMS Goodlife, a private hospital here on Friday morning. Vivek alias Dimple was the younger sister of Vandana Sharma, who is chief proctor of Bareilly College. This is third swine flu death in the state this year. Two deaths have been reported from Rai Bareli and Saharanpur districts.According to officials, Vivek was admitted to SRMS on January 8 and she died on Friday around 4 am. The report from a private laboratory had confirmed swine flu. Dr Vineet Shukla, chief medical officer, said, “SRMS had notified us about swine flu on January 16. After we received information about Vivek’s death, I had sent a team to her house to give medicines to her family members and other persons with whom she was in regular contact. This is the first swine flu death in Bareilly in 2019.”Vivek’s husband, Shashikant Tiwari, is a lawyer and she had three children aged 13, 12 and eight years. Her family resides in Kargaina locality of the city.Swine flu or H1N1 is a droplet infection and highly contagious air-borne disease. Symptoms of swine flu are fever, runny nose, sore throat, diarrhoea, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, nausea and vomiting.“People in Bareilly should not panic as Influenza A also exists. Among the preventive measures, people should cover their nose and mouth while sneezing and coughing, they should regularly wash their hands with soap and water, should avoid going to crowded places and should immediately consult a doctor if they have symptoms of swine flu. People with symptoms of H1N1 should maintain a distance of one metre with other persons,” said Dr Meesam Abbas, district epidemiologist.Abbas along with his team members — Sanjay Kumar, Shivam Deval and Baburam Sharma — went to Vivek’s house and distributed medicines to her family members as preventive measure.Health officials in Bareilly claimed that they had earlier issued an advisory to all private hospitals to notify them if they found any suspected case of H1N1. A 10-bed ward for swine flu has been reserved at the district hospital. So far, no other confirmed case of swine flu has been reported.Dr Shukla said, "The department has appropriate resources available to deal with swine flu. Rapid response team is screening suspected cases. The test report of another suspected case on Friday was negative. We are creating awareness among public about the disease and are distributing handbills."In Bareilly, one swine flu death was reported in December 2018 while 54 positive cases, including three deaths, came to light in 2017.This year, Meerut has so far reported the highest number of swine flu cases at 41 but no death has been reported from there in January. It is followed by Ghaziabad with 11 positive cases and Lucknow with five cases.

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