Three months after 14-year old Reeda Shaikh became the country's first swine flu casualty on August 3, the death toll in Pune reached 100 on Thursday.
Mohini Santosh Undre, 28, of Manjri in Haveli taluka died at 4.30 am at the Noble Hospital in Hadapsar. Doctors who treated Undre said she had tested positive for H1N1, and was suffering from bilateral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
With Pune recording the maximum number of swine flu deaths, health experts say most deaths have occurred because of underlying health complications or late reporting. Dr Shashi Khare, consultant microbiologist and in-charge of the monitoring cell at the National Centre for Disease Control (formerly National Institute for Communicable Diseases), said, "For all of us at NCDC, this remains a big question - why Pune, which has no dearth of resource or infrastructure, has seen so many deaths."
“We tried to analyse the situation and found a common factor - late reporting. This leads to delayed treatment and ultimately death," he said. Dr Pradeep Awate, the state in-charge for swine flu, said late reporting was a reason behind so many deaths.
Dr Renu Bharadwaj, the head of the microbiology department, at the Sassoon general hospital, said, people have low immunity. “They ignored all health warnings.”
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