Small BusinessFive more swine flu deaths in Pune; countrywide toll 23
Five more persons, including an AIDS patient, died of swine flu in the city, taking the countrywide death toll in the pandemic to 23.
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The city has witnessed 15 deaths.
70-year-old Parubhai Shinde, who was admitted to a hospital here four days back following high fever and other symptoms of swine flu died late last night, health officials said.
44-year-old HIV positive Prabhakar Wariager died last night of swine flu within hours of his admission to the Sassoon Hospital.
Another senior citizen, Bharati Goyal, who was suffering from fever and breathlessness for the last four days, died of suspected swine flu, yesterday.
Health officials said 37-year-old Archana Kolhe, who was shifted to government-run Sassoon Hospital on August 10 with fever and acute respiratory problems from a private hospital, succumbed to the flu yesterday afternoon.
An eight-month-old boy, Swabhiman Kamble, died late on Thursday night in Sahyadri Hospital, a designated private hospital to treat flu patients, Zagade said.
As the swine flu cases continued to mount, the Union health ministry has decided to conduct from today an orientation programme for experts from private laboratories engaged by the government for carrying out diagnostic test for swine flu patients.
"It was decided during a meeting with health ministry officials that two experts (doctors) from each laboratory who are engaged in conducting different tests will undergo an orientation programme before starting actual work on swine flu samples," Vinay Batra, Global Director, Sales and Marketing, Super Religare Laboratories said.
"In this orientation programme their technical staff will tell us their experience and explain certain do"s and dont"s while conducting the test. They will tell us the guidelines to be followed while conducting the tests, how to handle the transportation of samples, how to wear the mask, the goggles the cap and other logistics relating to this," he said.