PUNE: An eight-year-old girl from Dhayari succumbed to swine flu infection at a city hospital on Tuesday, becoming the first H1N1 casualty in the state this year so far.“The girl had tested positive for swine flu. She succumbed to swine flu-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) around 12.55pm on January 8,” a doctor from Ruby Hall Clinic, where the girl was undergoing treatment, said.The girl had developed influenza-like illness on December 31 last year. She had cough, cold and fever for five days and later developed breathlessness. She was admitted to Ruby Hall Clinic’s intensive care unit on January 5.“She was a known patient of thalassemia and was on immunosuppressant,” a doctor from the hospital said.When contacted, Sanjeev Wavare, assistant medical officer of health, Pune Municipal Corporation, said, “We have a swine death review committee, which will confirm the cause of the girl’s death. Till that happens, we will consider it a suspected death.Besides, the condition of a 52-year-old man from Ahmednagar is critical and he has been put on ventilator support at Ruby Hall Clinic. “He has been referred to tertiary care hospital after his condition deteriorated,” another doctor from the hospital said.A state health official said, “As many as four patients have tested positive for swine flu, mainly from the Pune region in Maharashtra . The eight-year-old girl’s death is the first swine flu casualty as per our records.”Medical experts have advised precautionary measures in view of the fluctuating weather conditions, which provide an ideal setting for the growth of influenza viruses, including swine flu.The virus had claimed 461 lives and infected 2,593 people across the state in 2018.Since 2009 swine flu pandemic, the California strain of the virus (influenza A (H1N1) pdm09) had been doing the rounds in India. However, NIV scientists have been seeing only the Michigan strain of the swine flu virus this year. The experts said the new strain could be behind the increase in cases and mortality, but it is yet to be proved scientifically. “The new strain of the virus is sensitive to oseltamivir drug, popularly known as Tamiflu or Fluvir medicines,” an NIV scientist said.Asked if the Michigan strain was responsible for more outbreaks and deaths, the scientist said, “The molecular markers of virulence do not indicate that this strain (Michigan strain) is more virulent than the California one. But since this is a new strain, the entire population for the virus is entirely virgin and the existing herd immunity in the community is of no use against the new strain.”

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