11 more swine flu deaths in Gujarat; death toll 201 since January

Ahmedabad Aug 14 (IANS) With 11 more swine flu deaths in Gujarat on Monday the death toll due to the disease since January has risen to 201 even as 145 new cases have been reported from across the state officials said.

According to official figures as many as 1 754 H1N1 cases have been reported so far with 913 people still under treatment and 640 of them cured.

Ahmedabad was the worst-affected city with 51 deaths followed by Vadodara (32). Surat and state capital Gandhinagar reported nine deaths each.

The Saurashtra region with 11 districts reported 61 deaths.

The state government said it had ensured additional stocks of medicines and taken others steps including setting up isolation wards in many hospitals but the number of patients was rising steadily.

Over 850 of the total 9 000 infected persons had succumbed to the deadly virus since 2012. Year 2015 was the worst off with 350 deaths reported from the disease.

Ahmedabad Surat Vadodara and Rajkot accounted for half of the registered swine flu cases in five years.

--IANS
desai/tsb/dg