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Swine flu claims nearly 600 lives in India this year

Xinhua, February 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

India seems to be reeling under the impact of swine flu, which has claimed nearly 600 lives so far this year, with 100 people succumbing in the last three days alone.

A senior health official Tuesday confirmed the number of deaths, claiming that the worst-affected are the northern state of Rajasthan, the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, and the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

"The central government has sent medical teams to the affected states to help local doctors. The problem is that patients are coming to hospitals in the last stages," he said, on condition of anonymity.

"The government has already placed an order for enhancing stocks of diagnostic kits for testing for the H1N1 virus (which causes swine flu) to be supplied to the lab network under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program," an official statement said. Endi