"Both the children tested positive for H1N1, but we cannot rule out other complications," additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar said.
A two-month-old infant, Rizwana Ansari, and Ankita Nagarkar, a 12-year-old girl, succumbed to swine flu late on Friday. With this, the number of swine flu deaths in Mumbai rose to seven. Members of both families are under observation, with medical officials administering swab tests and providing Tamiflu tablets.
Rizwana, who lived in Janata Sevak Chawl, Byculla (West), died at Nair hospital. She had tested H1N1 positive earlier. Doctors, however, said she was suffering from a cold and cough for last 15 days, and fever for the last week, and had died of chronic pneumonia. Rizwana’s father, Mohamad Ansari, a tailor, claimed the baby contracted fever only after being admitted to hospital. “The doctors waited for two days before taking a swab,” he alleged. “We were unaware that she had a fatal illness. My daughter has not been particularly healthy since birth, but it was only after her death that we realised she was H1N1 positive.”
BMC executive health officer Jayaraj Thanekar said: “As soon as doctors at Nair took a swab, we started the baby on Tamiflu syrup, and she had completed the course. But then, she contracted chronic pneumonia, which complicated the case. Her death was not due to swine flu but chronic pneumonia.”
Ankita Nagarkar, a resident of Nehru Chawl, Marol, died on Friday at Kasturba Hospital. She was an asthma patient. According to her father, Satish Nagarkar, she used to frequently get asthma attacks, but recently had fever as well. “We thought it was just fever, so admitted her to Rachna Hospital in JB Nagar. After a week, doctors said they suspected swine flu and recommended that she be moved to Kasturba Hospital,” Nagarkar said.
Ankita was admitted to Kasturba on August 18, and a swab taken the same day. Two days later, it showed positive for H1N1. Hospital authorities said: “She was under observation and also on Tamiflu. She appeared to be recovering, but unfortunately died on Friday.” Nagarkar now fears for his wife and other two daughters. All of them have been given Tamiflu, and Satish and his wife have been administered the swab test.
Nagarkar added: “It is imperative to save my two other daughters.” According to Thanekar, Ankita’s was also a “complicated case. The girl was an asthma patient and her platelet count was low. She died due to this complication, but was H1N1 positive.”
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