H1N1 hits Panchgani kids

Nine students of a residential school in Panchgani tested positive for the H1N1 virus on Wednesday. The students are currently in an isolation ward in the school, New Era, officials said.

On Thursday Maharashtra, which has been worst hit by the virus, registered as many as eight deaths — the highest number in a single day since the outbreak of the influenza. Of these, five were reported from Pune, one from Ratnagiri and two from Mumbai, officials added. Panchgani seems to have been hit bad, as far as numbers go.

When the residential school reopened in the first week of September, after a break of seven days, there were rumours of sporadic cases of swine flu. According to district collector Vikas Deshmukh, the school administration has decided to shut the school for another seven days. Last week, a nursing college in Panchgani registered seven cases that tested positive.

“We conducted a meeting with all school administrations in Panchgani and asked them to take necessary precautions. Six teams of doctors visited schools for a routine surveillance and also to examine students suspected to be positive,” Deshmukh said.

Additional chief secretary, public health, Sharvaree Gokhale, said the highest number of the deaths was registered on Thursday. “According to the analysis of the deaths, so far more than 90 per cent of patients have been administered Tamiflu after 48 hours. Of the 99 deaths, 58 are in the age group of 16 and 45; 12 are between 6 and 15 years and eight are less than five years old,” she said.

(With inputs from Deepa Suryanarayan and Pandurang Mhaske)