Swine flu virus continues to spread its wings across the country taking the toll to 1,767 while the number of people affected with the disease stood at 30, 366 this year. Senior CPI(M) leader Gautam Deb is the latest to join the list of politicians who has contracted the virus. A medical bulletin issued by the AMRI Hospital in Kolkata said 61-year-old Deb, a member of the party’s Central Committee, has tested positive for H1N1 influenza and has been put on ventilator support.
last month, Gujarat Assembly Speaker Ganpat Vasava had tested positive for swine flu. On Tuesday itself, 36 patients had succumbed to the disease. However, the Health Ministry said there was no need to panic and the virus would continue to circulate though no mutation was taking place. Health Minister JP Nadda, during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha quoted a WHO report saying the pandemic influenza virus would “continue to circulate” as seasonal influenza virus causing sporadic cases and outbreaks of various intensities.
The National Institute of Virology, Pune was constantly keeping a watch on the virus. The debate attained political connotations when senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh took a dig at the ‘Gujarat Model of Development” and sought to know why there were so many swine flu cases in that State, while it was less in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Nadda countered saying it could be due to a “very good” survelliance system for the virus detection in Gujarat.
Gujarat continues to be the worst affected with 392 people having perished while number of affected people has reached 6,186. In Rajasthan, the virus has claimed 384 lives and infected 6,241 people. The death toll in Maharashtra stood at 301 while 3,579 people have been affected. In Madhya Pradesh, 249 people have perished and 1,946 have been affected. In Delhi, 11 deaths have been reported while the number of swine flu cases crossed the 4,000-mark.