12-year-old dies of swine flu, NIV officials advise vaccination as preventive measure

Dr Devdutta Gaikwad treated her at Varad hospital in Satara on January 18 following which she was referred to Chirayu Children Institute and Research Centre Satara. However, her condition did not improve and she was shifted to Pune’s KEM hospital on January 21. On Tuesday, she went into a cardio-respiratory arrest and died at 3.30 p.m.

In Pune, 16 persons have tested positive for swine flu since January this year. As many as 59 persons had been given Tamiflu tablets and four persons were on the ventilator at various hospitals in the city since January this year, a PMC health official said.

National Institute of Virology (NIV) officials have clearly advised vaccination as a prevention measure. At Serum Institute of India too, researchers have rolled out this year’s latest batch of vaccine to prevent swine flu.

NIV Deputy Director M S Chadda told Newsline that there was no change in the structure of the virus. “It is the same one and like the spike in cases in January 2013, this year too we are seeing a rise in cases. However, Maharashtra has not been impacted like Telangana, Delhi and other states,” Chadda added.

A vaccine was always advisable, specially in high risk groups, Chadda said. At Serum Institute, Executive Director Dr Rajiv Dhere said that as many as 1.5 lakh doses of NasoVac (S) were destroyed as the shelf life of the vaccine had expired by December last year. “Swine flu is a vaccine preventable disease and we are continuing with our production of 70,000 doses of NasoVac against the H1N1 virus and other strains,” Dhere added.