47-year-old is 5th to succumb to swine flu in 2019

CHENNAI: Swine flu claimed the life of a 47-year-old woman in the State on Tuesday taking the toll of swine flu deaths to five. Tamil Nadu recorded at least 600 cases of swine flu from January till November this year. The state health department officials, however, assailed fears that there is no outbreak of swine flu in the State.

The deceased, Kalavathy, was from Tiruvarur district and was admitted to Tiruchy government hospital last week after she did not respond to treatment at a private hospital in the district. The authorities at the Tiruchy government hospital said that despite giving adequate treatment, Kalavathy did not respond as she was brought in a critical condition.

“Her lab reports confirmed that she was affected by H1N1,” said an official from the hospital.

As per data released by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme of National Centre for Disease Control, there have been 200 cases of swine flu since June. But, the State health department officials said the infection is in control and the number of cases reported so far is less when compared to last year. TN had recorded 43 deaths due to swine flu out of the 2,812 cases reported in 2018.

“The number of swine flu cases has fallen by one fourth and there is a decrease in the incidence of the number of cases being recorded every month. There is no outbreak and all measures are being taken to prevent deaths due to the infection,” said Public Health Director Dr K Kolandaisamy.