Swine flu: Toll mounts to 7 in Kashmir valley

One more person died of swine flu in Kashmir Valley, taking the toll to seven, with 77 more testing positive for the virus in last four days, health officials said on Tuesday.

“There has been one more death due to swine flu. The patient had Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and he was tested positive for the Swine Flu virus,” Medical Superintendent, SKIMS, Doctor Farooq Jan, told PTI.

The number of disease-related deaths in the Valley is seven now. The number of patients infected with the virus in the valley has risen to 267 as 77 new cases had surfaced during the last four days, he added.

“We had a backlog of 144 samples which we had sent for testing over the last four days. But due to shifting of the laboratory, the reports for those tests were delayed. Out of these 77 have tested positive,” he said.

65 more samples are in the backlog and five fresh samples were taken, he added.

“We used to have around 280 patients visiting for check-up at the special OPD, but now that number is decreasing today we had only 111. Five among them were suspected and their samples were sent for testing. So there is no need to panic,” he said.

Five patients, infected with the virus was admitted to the hospital, while two other patients were discharged today, he added.  a