HYDERABAD: Swine Flu seems to be spreading at an alarming rate as it claimed one more life on Monday, that of a 60-year-old woman, while test report of a 55-year-old woman, who died on September 12, which was out on Monday, revealed that she too died of swine flu taking the number of deaths to four in the last one month.
Death of the 55-year-old woman from Mahbubnagar on Saturday left many officials perplexed as it was recorded that samples from the patient were sent from Gandhi Hospital to the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) for tests on September 12, morning while the patient died at 4 a.m. on the same day. The test reports were, however, tabled by 4.30 p.m.
Considering the timings, some officials suspected whether hospital staff collected the samples before or after the woman’s death. “The samples were sent in the morning, while the woman died in the wee hours. It is unclear when the staff collected the samples,” said a source.
However, swine flu nodal officer at the hospital, Dr K Narasimhulu, said that the samples were collected four hours before the woman died.
“She was admitted at 11.45 p.m. on September 11, and we collected samples for tests 15 minutes later. She died after four hours of collecting the sample,” he added.
Also, sources pointed out that IPM has not learnt from the mistakes it committed last season. Though the 55-year-old woman from Hyderabad who died on Monday was detected positive on September 11, staff could not trace her as IPM accepted her samples devoid of address.
The only detail that officials knew was that she was admitted at Owaisi Hospital. “However, when our staff went to check on her condition on Saturday, they learnt there was no such patient at the hospital. And on Monday we received the news that she died at a private Hospital,” said a source, adding had IPM was particular about the address, tracing her would have been easy.
Usually, with help of patients’ address, the officials check if family members or those who were in close contact with H1N1 patient contracted the infection, and they provide prophylactic treatment to avoid the flu. Lack of contact details derails the process of containing H1N1.
The five positive patients include, a 37-year-old woman from Saidabad, 52-year-old man from Kadapa, 59-year-old woman from Boduppal and a 38-year-old man from Nagole. Even youngsters are contracting the flu as a 25-year-old woman from Moula Ali also tested positive for H1N1.