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MUMBAI: A 32-year-old pregnant woman and a two-year-old girl succumbed to complications arising out of an H1N1 viral infection in the city in the last 10 days.

Unlike the rest of Maharashtra, the city and its extended suburbs have been spared a virulent H1N1 attack this year so far. State government officials said that 230 people have died in the state this year, but the toll in Mumbai has remained in single digit so far. BMC officials said that only four Mumbaikars have died due to H1N1 so far. tnn

, but an equal number of patients—including the two-year-old child—who died due to the influenza in Mumbai’s hospitals hailed from its satellite towns. “As the child hailed from Bhayander, its death in Kasturba Hospital near Chinchpokli will not be counted among Mumbai’s toll,’’ said the official.

While 1,145 patients have tested positive for H1N1—previously known as swine flu—across Maharashtra, the corresponding number in Mumbai stands at 97 so far. Incidentally, there were very few swine flu cases last year.

The 32-year-old pregnant woman who lived in Dharavi died in civic-run Sion Hospital on May 29. She was started on oseltamivir, the drug for H1N1 infection, on May 28, but succumbed a day later. Incidentally, her H1N1-positive report reached Sion Hospital only on the day of her death.

The Bhayander baby was admitted to BMC-run Kasturba Hospital near Arthur Road Jail on June 1, but passed away on June 4.

A public hospital doctor who didn’t want to be identified said that the incidence of H1N1 was quite high, but many patients weren’t being tested for the virus. “They are treated on symptomatic basis and most respond well to treatment. It’s only pregnant women, children and patients with chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes who have to be highly cautious,’’ the doctor said.

