Deadly swine-flu claims 34 lives in India's Rajasthan

Swine flu has claimed 34 lives in the past two months in India's northern state of Rajasthan, health officials said on Tuesday.

"During January and February, 34 deaths have taken place in state because of the swine flu," an official of Rajasthan health department said.

"A total of 162 people were tested positive and of them 34 succumbed to the H1N1 virus."

According to the official, 2,000 samples were collected during the two months.

The health department has taken several key measures to contain the spread of the virus.

Swine flu is a respiratory disease caused by a strain of the influenza type A virus, H1N1.

An outbreak of swine flu in various Indian states last year claimed over 700 lives.

In the recent past, the H1N1 virus first appeared in Mexico in 2009 and rapidly spread across the world killing over 200,000 people. Endit