One of the swine flu victims died on Thursday

Two fresh cases of swine flu were reported from Ghaziabad taking the total number of confirmed cases to seven in the district.

The patients, Moti Lal (50) of Loni and Pushpa Singh (51) of Shyam Park, were admitted to Yashoda Hospital in Kaushambi.

According to doctors, the preliminary tests reports confirm the presence of the H1N1 virus in both the patients. The samples have been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases for the final confirmation.

"We are yet to receive a confirmation from the medical institute. The samples were sent to Delhi on Wednesday," said a senior doctor from the hospital.

Delhi so far has reported 320 cases of the virus with three deaths.

One of the patients, Moti Lal, who works in a tyre shop, was taken to the hospital with high fever. The 50-year-old man who also had boils on his body died on Thursday morning.

The other patient is a woman, who was affected by swine flu right after she gave birth to a baby.

"The hospital has declared the death caused due to H1N1 virus. But to get the death under the records of this virus, we need to get them verified in our government labs. We have sent the blood samples and are reports are awaited," said a senior official from Ghaziabad health department.

Symptoms of swine flu include fever, cough, nasal secretion, fatigue, headache, bodyache and sore throat. Frequent hand-washing and avoiding crowded places are among the precautions one should take to avoid catching the infection.

The standard treatment for H1N1 is Tamiflu, which should be taken only on prescription. There are three categories of the virus - A,B and C. While the first two are considered stable, the C category is dangerous. It requires ventilator support immediately.

In 2009, when H1N1 was spreading fast in many countries around the world, the World Health Organisation called it a pandemic. Since then, people have continued to get sick from swine flu across the world, including in India, but the cyclical nature of the virus means that every few years there is a spurt in cases and deaths.