Medha Kulkarni, a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Pune city, was diagnosed with swine flu on Friday. She was immediately admitted to Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in a private room.

Medical sources, however, said Ms. Kulkarni, a first-time MLA from the city’s Kothrud Assembly constituency, was stable and had been quarantined to ensure a speedy recovery.

Her husband said Ms. Kulkarni had been running a temperature with severe cough for the past few days after which she was hospitalised.

She was given Tamiflu on diagnosis and was said to be in a stable condition.

Despite health officials underscoring the importance of early detection, the death toll in Maharashtra has touched 83 with a 43-year-old in Mumbai’s Khopoli area succumbing to the virus.