Mumbai recorded its first two deaths from the H1N1 virus in 2019 with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) confirming the death of a 30-year-old woman from Agripada and a 65-year-old woman from Mazgaon in March. So far, Mumbai has recorded 26 cases of the infection. Health officials said the two victims’ samples were retested to confirm H1N1 infection. Advertising “A death review committee was set up this month. Both cases were found positive with H1N1,” said Dr Padmaja Keskar, executive health officer. The 65-year-old woman from Mazgaon had a travelled to Iran several times, and had fallen ill days after she returned to India recently. On March 5, she was hospitalised at Prince Aly Khan hospital and passed away on March 9. She was also diabetic, which affected her condition. The 30-year-old from Agripada was admitted to Nair hospital on March 5. She passed away on March 7. Advertising Across Maharashtra, 120 people have died due to H1N1 infection, commonly known as swine flu. The flu carries symptoms of fever, chills, cough, sore throat and body aches. In Maharashtra, at least 8.86 lakh people have been screened for H1N1 virus from January to April 21. Of them, 15,524 patients suspected to have fever were administered the Oseltamivir drug as a precaution. A total of 1,346 patients were diagnosed with the infection of whom 120 passed away. Keskar said that screening is actively carried out in Mumbai, especially in high risk groups such as those suffering from hypertension and diabetes, and senior citizens, to diagnose the disease. In February, four cases of H1N1 were found in Mumbai and the number rose to eight in March and 14 in April. Meanwhile, following a large-scale immunisation drive of measles-rubella vaccine among children across India, the BMC is inquiring into the outbreak of 40 fresh cases of measles infection in children. Health officials are visiting at least 500 households in central Mumbai to detect more possible measles cases. Officials said the infected children had not been vaccinated during the drive.

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